


The Broken Moon

by Serriya (Keolah)



Series: Fox Paws [9]
Category: Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Cannibalism, Captivity, Collars, Complete, Corruption, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Kitsune, Minor Character Death, Murder, NaNoWriMo, No Canon Knowledge Required, Novel, Original Universe, Psychological Torture, Romance, Shapeshifting, Stockholm Syndrome, Violence, Werewolf Sex, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-11-01
Updated: 2006-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-13 08:11:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 49,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Kitsune called Toriko is held prisoner by a werewolf. Can she hold out against Wyrm corruption and find a way to escape with her mind and soul intact? Or will she only find herself hurtling down into darkness?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Dungeon

Slowly, she woke to darkness, the cold, hard feeling of stone beneath her body. Groaning softly, she wondered just where it is that she had ended up and how she had gotten here. There had been fighting. She remembered fighting. Screaming, bloodshed. She had tried to flee. The last thing she remembered was trying to flee, trying to get away somehow. Judging by where she currently was, she did not believe that she had succeeded in that. 

Sighing, she slowly pulled herself upright, peering about the darkness, but unable to see the faintest flicker of light to give her surroundings any definition. She grumbled for a moment and called forth her magic to create a small globe of light within her palm. Blinking for a moment at the sudden light, she climbed to her feet and took a look around. The place was definitely a dungeon cell, built of solid stone and the entrance blocked by heavy bars of wrought black iron. Off toward one corner there was a stinking metal grate in the floor leading down into a narrow shaft, presumably a drain into which prisoners could relieve themselves. 

Turning toward the bars, she peered outside into the corridor. There was a stone wall across from her cell, and a short ways down the hall she could see a staircase leading up and out of the dungeon presumably. She couldn't tell if there were other cells along the corridor, and if there were if they were occupied. There were no sounds that could be heard that might be identifiable as belonging to any living beings. The oppressive silence was almost deafening. 

"Hello?" she asked tentatively, her voice echoing through the silent dungeon a few times. "Is anyone here?" She waited for several minutes in silence, perking her ears up in hopes of hearing a response, but only her own echoes answered her. 

She sighed again and shook her head slowly, feeling well and truly alone down here. She wondered what had become of her friends, if they had escaped and made it to safety, if they had been killed, or if they, too, were prisoners someplace else. But there was no use in worrying about that for the moment, as she had other things on her mind just now. Like just how she might manage to get out of this place. She tried the door, but it was securely locked and held firmly in place, and when she attempted to use a little mystical trickery to try to get open the lock, she received a brief but painful jolt of electricity. The door was clearly protected by magic, she thought dismally. 

Sinking down to the cold stone floor again, she leaned against the wall and sought to ponder her situation and just how she might be able to get out of here. Her musings were interrupted abruptly, however, by the thunderous sound of the door at the entrance to the dungeon opening. She scrambled to her feet and turned to look as the shadow of an enormous figure appeared on the hall floor outside her cell. Heavy footsteps approached, and a tall, muscular wolf-man strode down the corridor and stopped outside her cell and turned to peer inside with deep brown eyes. 

As he looked at her, she stood there trembling and looking back at him, feeling as though he were staring into her very soul. "Mmh," said the wolf-man in a deep, rumbling voice, "So you are here. What is your name?" 

Her voice caught in her throat. She would not give this being her true name, of course. That was something a kitsune rarely, if ever, did. "Toriko," she replied instead. It was hardly a typical name, merely a word meaning a victim, a captive, a prisoner, but such was typical to give a name fitting for the situation. 

The wolf-man snorted softly, clearly not taking it for a moment to be a real name. "Very well. Then you may call me Zannin," he replied with a dark smirk. The kitsune shuddered for a moment at that name's reflection of cruelty and brutality. She did not much like at all the situation she had ended up in, if this beast were so blatantly flaunting his inhumanity. 

"What do you want of me?" she said quietly. 

Zannin gave a malicious grin at her and replied, "I want your absolute loyalty and devotion. I want your love and adulation, and to do absolutely anything I ask of you without question. I want you to be utterly mine, in mind, body, and soul." 

Toriko shuddered again at his clear statement of purpose, having no doubt in her mind just what he would do with such a thing. "Why?" she just asked him softly. "Why me? Why do you want me so badly?" 

He gave a deep, dark chuckle. "I've never broken a kitsune before. I believe it shall prove a most interesting challenge. Or perhaps you would like to feel more cooperative?" 

"No," she said quietly, dreading just what he had in mind, but there was no way in hell that she was going to go along with it willingly. Not this, and not like this. 

"Excellent," Zannin said with a cruel grin, showing many sharpened fangs. "I was hoping that you would prove entertaining. Don't disappoint me, now." 

"I'm afraid I probably won't be 'entertaining' in quite the way you would hope for," Toriko replied with a smirk. She might be terrified, but she was bound and determined to find some way or another to get out of this mess. 

"As you wish," Zannin replied coldly. "But first, I shall leave you here to yourself to think on your situation and perhaps you may choose to reconsider. But don't get too comfortable... for I will return soon." 

"Yeah, you do that," she muttered. At least it would give her some chance to try to plot an escape of some sort. 

Zannin just shook his head and strode out of the dungeon again, climbing the stairs and slamming the heavy wooden door closed with a loud booming sound. Toriko sighed again and sank to the dungeon floor. How long would he be gone? she wondered. Perhaps she might find some way out in the meantime. 

Toriko crawled over toward the smelly grate in the floor to examine it more closely. It was disgusting, but if it ran out into a sewer system it might provide a means of escape. She found that it was too narrow to get through in human form... but perhaps not too small for a little fox. With a bright flash of magic, she managed to get the grate opened up. The smell of the shaft made her feel a little nauseous, and she could imagine it would only be worse as a canine. But it was preferable to whatever Zannin might have planned for her, even if she got trapped and died down there. 

She shifted into the form of a small fox, with fluffy black fur over most of her body, except for a white belly, tip of the tail, paws, and tips of the ears. It was certainly not a typical coloration for a fox, but she was a kitsune, albeit a young one yet, for she still only possessed a single tail. Silently praying to Shazmar to watch over her, she hopped into the filthy shaft and went tumbling down far below the dungeon cell. 

The shaft ended in opening into an underground tunnel, and the little fox landed in the filthy water with a soft splash. Sputtering and choking, Toriko struggled to keep her head above the water, not wanting to think too hard on just how much of it was actually water and how much was made up of less pleasant substances. After some while, it took her outside, dumping her unceremoniously into a small lake. At least the lake waters were relatively cleaner, and she swam toward the shore, letting them wash away or at least dilute some of the filth on her fur. 

She shifted back into human form, and emptied her stomach into the mud on the shore of the lake. Now it was her clothing that was sopping wet and filthy rather than her fur. Once she had finished vomiting, she looked up toward the nearby darkened castle silhouetted against the gray skies, far too close to where she was. But she was definitely outside of it, and now she just had to make good on her escape and get well away from here. 

The kitsune scrambled to her feet and moved to head away along the edge of the lake. Before she could move two steps, however, something hit her heavily and she found herself knocked out into the mud again. Toriko gasped for breath and found something heavy on her chest, and claws around her throat. It was Zannin. 

"So," he snarled. "You thought you could get away from me, didn't you. Clever little fox. Don't think you'll be able to pull that one again. But now I must punish you for your disobedience. It would be far easier on you if you would merely surrender yourself to me and do what I wish of you. But far less entertaining for me." He grinned malevolently, and hauled her up by the throat, wrapping his other arm around her to lock her arms against her sides, and carried her back into the castle like a rag doll. 

Toriko could only manage a whimper as she found her hopes of escape shattered so quickly. How had he found what had happened with her and caught up with her so quickly? Zannin would clearly not be fooled by such simple trickery, and now she was worse off for even trying. No, she told herself, that was merely an excuse for him to say to make her think that. He would have done it anyway, for one reason or another, or no reason at all, she was sure. 

She squirmed and tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he held her fast as he made his way back inside the castle and down the stairs to the dungeon. Looking out, now she saw what else lay along the corridor where her cell had been. There were other cells further on, but next to the cell beside the stairs coming down into the dungeon, there was a grisly torture chamber filled with a variety of unpleasant looking implements. 

"What are you going to do to me?" Toriko whimpered softly. When he loosened his grip on her inside to try to put her wrists into a set of heavy manacles hanging from the ceiling, she struggled some more and tried to get away, but she was unable to break his iron-hard grip. The young kitsune found herself hanging from the ceiling by her wrists, suspended two feet off the ground in an unpleasant manner. 

"You'll find that your little tricks will not so easily slip you out of these, either," Zannin told her with a dark grin. She had to try it out anyway, though, and as with the cell door, her magic rebounded with a painful shock along her hands and arms. He chuckled softly at her discomfort and stepped back to let her simply hang there for a few moments that she took to take a better look around the room. 

A variety of knives hung from one wall, of different shapes, sizes, and materials. Hooked knives, straight knives, double-edged knives, short knives, long knives, steel knives, silver knives, and a couple made of some mottled reddish material she didn't recognize. There were other unpleasant looking implements aside, many of which whose purpose she did not immediately recognize, but was fairly certain that she did not wish to find out anytime soon. There were spikes and nails, hooks and rings, chains and shackles. Some of the items were covered in faintly glowing runes, belying their magical nature, although just what enchantments might have been placed upon them was impossible to determine from here. 

"Now," Zannin said. "As for what I'm going to do to you, my dear little fox. You're going to decide that. What punishment do _you_ think is warranted for such blatant disobedience, hmm?" 

"Um... Letting me go?" Toriko said hopefully. 

"Tsk, tsk," the wolf-man said. "No, no. That won't do at all." He selected a couple knives at random and brought them over to her, holding them out to show her. "Now, you see, there are advantages and disadvantages to using different styles and materials," he explained in an almost encyclopedic tone. "As a shapeshifter, you are capable of sustaining more damage without permanent harm than a human would be, and easily regenerate much of the damage you take in short order. With silver, it will take longer for your body to regenerate the damage and the mere touch of it will sting a little. However, sometimes inflicting more transient wounds can be more desirable..." 

This sort of talk was definitely not doing anything to calm Toriko's nerves, and she definitely didn't want him poking silver knives at her, either. "I'll pass on the silver, thanks," she muttered at him. 

"Ah, then you would prefer the steel knife," Zannin said, putting away the other and fingering the remaining weapon thoughtfully. "An excellent choice. This one is one of my favorites, you see. Nothing particularly ornate and complex, but sometimes, simple is better." 

Zannin moved over in front of her and began to slice her tunic into shreds, not being particularly careful in the process that he did not cut her skin as well. Bloody strips of cloth fluttered down to pile at the ground underneath Toriko's hanging feet. At least they had been cheap clothes in the first place, but that thought was not particularly comforting as it did not stop the pain or the discomfort at being so exposed before this monster. Several long minutes later, she found herself hanging there stark naked, the last of the cuts sealing up as the knife's bite left them, the remnants of her clothing laying on the floor below her. 

"That's much better now, don't you think?" Zannin said with a dark grin. "Clothing can be so inconvenient at times. Now, my dear Toriko, you aren't going to try to run off on me again, are you?" 

"No," she murmurs quietly, blushing fiercely at the look she could feel him giving her nude body. 

"I do not believe you are truly sincere in that promise, my helpless little fox," he said to her. He set aside the knife and reached up to remove her wrists from their restraints. "But it is little matter. You will learn soon enough. You will be mine, one way or another." 

Toriko struggled weakly and futilely, but she soon found herself dragged back into her cell once again. Once inside, Zannin attached a chain to her ankle, connected to the floor. She wasn't sure if the chain had been in this cell when she had been in here before. After attaching her to the chain securely, he went over and closed the grate on the floor with a clang. 

"I trust you will not be foolish enough to attempt to escape in that manner again, at least," Zannin said with a smirk. "You will need to be a little more creative with your tricks. You shall prove most entertaining, I think. Continue to entertain me and you might live." 

The wolf-man turned and left the cell again, closing the wrought-iron door behind him and locking it tight, then went and climbed up the staircase, the heavy wooden door slamming shut after him with an echoing boom. Toriko sighed and sunk down to the cold, hard stone floor, shivering a bit at the chill feel of it against her bare flesh. How was she to get out of here? She had to find some way. Before that malicious wolf decided he was bored of her and killed her... or worse.


	2. Makoto

She wasn't sure how long she sat there in that cold and silent cell before he came again. It might have been hours, or even days. In the meantime, she had shifted into her hybrid form to make sitting around on the stone floor a little more comfortable. Like a humanoid fox, covered in black fur but for the white markings on her belly, the tip of her tail, her paws, and the tips of her ears. The only way she could judge how long she had been down here was by how hungry she was. The mystic light she had placed on the ceiling to allow her to see anything was slowly dimming as her strength faded. For a while, she had to wonder if Zannin intended to leave her to starve down here. 

Finally, she heard the rumbling of the large door to the dungeon, and Zannin came down to stop outside her cell. He was carrying a bowl of something that smelled delicious to her hungry nose. She had to wonder just what he was going to make her do to get it, though. 

"Well, now," Zannin said with a dark grin as he opened up the cell door. "I trust you've been well, my pet?" 

Toriko bit back the comment that came to mind first, hoping that he'd just give her the food and be done with it. At least she didn't feel quite so naked and exposed while covered in a layer of warm, black fur. "I'm fine," she just muttered irritably instead. Certainly she had tried to unlock the chain attached to her leg as well, but it, too, had been protected by magic. 

"I've brought a little something for you here," Zannin said, handing her the bowl, which she took eagerly. "I hope you enjoy." 

She had to wonder at his strange behavior, but at the moment she was too hungry to really care. She took a spoonful of the meat and broth into her mouth and started chewing it hungrily. It was really quite tasty, absolutely delicious to her starving taste buds. 

"I hope you like the taste of human flesh," Zannin said lightly. Toriko stopped chewing abruptly, looked at him oddly, then spit out the mouthful of meat back into the bowl. "No?" Zannin commented, grinning maliciously. "Would so hate to see such tasty meat go to waste." 

Toriko hurled the bowl at him, chunks of meat and stew splattering his fur. "Leave me alone!" she snapped. "I don't care if I starve here. I'm not going to play your dark games." 

Zannin plucked a bit of meat off his fur from where it had landed with his claws and popped it into his mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully then swallowing. "Tsk. Such a temper," Zannin observed, chuckling deeply. "And here I was led to believe that the kitsune were all light-hearted tricksters. No matter." 

He bent over and scooped up the bowl, then turned and left the cell, locking it shut behind him, and strode out of the dungeon again, leaving Toriko alone. She sunk down to the floor again, looking at the spilled bits of meat still scattered across the stones. It still smelled delicious. But what if he was just messing with her mind, and it wasn't actually human flesh? No, she thought, shaking her head. It didn't matter, anyway. She wasn't going to play his games. She would much rather play on her own terms. 

Toriko lay down on her side and drifted in and out of delirious sleep for a time. The smell of food, growing ever less delicious by the hour, was driving her crazy. But time drifted forward, until she was jolted into full wakefulness by the rumbling of the dungeon door once again. She expected to see Zannin again, coming down to taunt her some more, but instead the figure she saw was a human man, dressed in what appeared to be some sort of uniform. Maybe one of the guards, she thought. He didn't stop to talk, however, merely cleaning up the spilled stew from where it had been left however long before. 

She drifted off to sleep again once he had left, delirious and starting to hallucinate from lack of food. Time crawled on as images danced in her mind, nightmares of fears of what Zannin might do to her, dreams of hope of freedom and escape. But she had begun to give up hope that he would even return for her, and started to wonder if he did, if she would refuse. 

Her restless sleep was interrupted by the warm taste of broth against her tongue, and the cold press of a spoon against her lips. She tentatively swallowed it as she blinked herself awake, finding herself looking into the rich brown eyes of the guard she had seen before. "W--What?" she murmured, blinking up into his face. 

"Shh," he whispered, spooning another mouthful of broth onto her thirsty tongue. "Just eat. You need to recover your strength. Don't worry, it's just vegetable broth. You're hungry and dehydrated." 

Toriko was not particularly feeling like arguing at the moment, quietly and eagerly taking in what he gave her and not questioning her good fortune or his kindness for the moment. If it was really a kindness, as she might have preferred to die rather than face Zannin again. But starvation was not a particularly pleasant way to die, she thought. Then again, neither was what he would likely do to her sooner or later. 

Once the bowl was emptied into her stomach, Toriko murmured thickly, "Who are you?" 

The guard replied, "Call me Makoto. Are you feeling any better now?" 

Toriko nodded weakly. "A bit. Why are you helping me?" 

"Would do no good for you to starve down here, would it?" Makoto told her. "I'll bring you something more solid later." He carried out the bowl and closed the cell door behind her and left her alone once again. 

The kitsune laid back onto the stone floor and pondered quietly, the warm broth settling in her stomach and giving her some strength. She supposed that he was probably only giving her food to make sure she didn't starve, so that Zannin wouldn't lose his plaything already. But where was Zannin now? She wasn't really eager to see him again, but she'd thought he'd at least have come down to taunt her or something. 

Toriko drifted off into half-sleep again, and woke again when she heard the dungeon door open, and sat upright. It was Makoto again, carrying a bowl of hot soup. He opened the cell door and came in to hand it to her, and she took it eagerly, although looking suspiciously into it to make sure that it didn't appear to be the stew she had been given before. Noticing that the ceiling light had grown dim, she put a small trickle of energy into it again to brighten the room. 

"It's just vegetable soup," Makoto assured her gently. "There's no meat in it, human or otherwise." 

She saw that he was right, the soup consisting primarily of carrots, peas, celery, and bits of onions and turnips. "Thank you," she said quietly, taking the spoon and beginning to eat hungrily. 

"Are you feeling alright?" Makoto asked her quietly, crouching down next to where she was sitting. 

Toriko swallowed a bit of vegetable soup tentatively. "Well, I certainly can't say I've never been better," she says. "But better than I was at any rate." 

"That's good," he said softly, looking her over critically. "You'll need to get your strength up. You'll never be able to survive what's ahead of you otherwise." 

She wondered why he would let Zannin do such things to her, but figured that he probably had to. Maybe he was forced into it, tortured into submission as well, or perhaps he had a family that Zannin held hostage and threatened him for his cooperation. Or maybe he simply worked for the money, and was paid well enough to turn a blind eye to the wolf-man's less socially acceptable activities. Or perhaps he really didn't care what Zannin did and his apparent compassion was all either just an act or she'd misread him just doing his job for actually caring. There was no way to be sure, but still she agonized over it all. 

He came back for her over regular intervals to bring her more food. Bean soup, green salad with tomatoes, cheese sandwiches, even ice cream. Definitely not your standard dungeon fare. He didn't speak much, mostly just to make sure she was going alright and if she needed anything in particular, which she never asked for. 

Then, one day, Zannin came back down to the dungeon. He looked across the bars at her silently for a moment before opening the cell door and going over to her. He roughly took her chin in his hand and pulled her up to look at him. "Are you feeling more cooperative now?" he snarled at her. 

"Let me go," Toriko retorted, looking up fiercely straight into his dark brown eyes. 

"I think it's time for you to learn a bit of humility, my dear," Zannin said with a dark grin. He released her, and pulled out a leash and a leather collar from somewhere, and slipped it around her neck. 

Toriko hated being treated like some sort of pet. "Why are you doing this?" she asked him. 

Zannin bent down to remove the chain from her ankle. "Such a spirited little fox," he commented wryly. "Because you won't cooperate, of course. But one day soon you will serve me, and gladly." 

"I don't think so," Toriko insisted. 

Zannin just smirked and tugged at her collar and led her out of the dungeon cell. She didn't particularly feel like putting up much of a fight, especially considering that she didn't exactly want to be in the cell in the first place, but she wasn't sure if she'd like where he might be taking her any better. Thankfully at least, he passed by the torture chamber on the right without going inside, simply taking her up the stairs and outside into the castle proper. 

The castle wasn't particularly large and grandiose, so far as castles went, but it definitely served its purpose. There were a few armed guards smattering the corridors, who carefully kept their expressions blank and neutral as the wolf and the fox walked past them. Up toward another staircase, one of stone circling around and around the inside of a tower, up several floors from there and coming out at another solid wooden door, this one carven with ornate scenes of violence, lust, and brutality. 

Zannin opened the door to reveal a large round bedroom taking up the entire floor of the tower, thick curtains partially concealing an archway leading off to a balcony to one side of the room. There was an enormous canopy bed to one side of the room, a full-length mirror, a dresser and wardrobe, as well as several less ordinary features, such as chains and manacles and some various interesting and clearly sexual implements arranged on the nightstand. 

"What..." Toriko murmured as she looked about the room with wide eyes. "What are you--" 

"Hush," Zannin snapped. "Don't get any ideas, my pet." He strode over to the bed and firmly attached the end of her leash to one of the bedposts. Toriko's mind raced as she wondered just what he meant to do with her. 

"Show me your human form," Zannin said to her. 

"W-What?" Toriko stuttered. 

Zannin grabbed her by the throat and shoved her against the bedpost. "Do it," he snarled. 

Terrified, Toriko let herself shift form, her tail and fur retracting and leaving her skin smooth and naked again. "Don't hurt me, please..." she whimpered softly. 

Zannin lowered her to the floor again and released her, much to her relief. He reached out a large, clawed paw and slowly ran it down her back, his claws rasping against her skin and drawing small, shallow scratches and cuts that sealed up momentarily behind him. "Not now," he said quietly, stepping away and turning his back to her. "You will not attempt to escape from this chamber. If you do, I will punish you most harshly. But if you are obedient, you will be well rewarded..." 

Toriko was not sure how to respond to that. Zannin strode out of the tower chamber and shut the door behind him, the lock clicking shut in his wake.


	3. The Tower

At least the tower room was considerably more comfortable than the dungeon cell she had been in before. She discovered soon enough that the leash was not actually magical in any way and did not even prevent her from removing it herself. If nothing else, that would make moving about the room a bit less uncomfortable as she tried to figure out if she was going to try to escape, and how. 

First she poked around in the wardrobe and dresser for anything that might be of use, particularly clothing as she did not fancy escaping only to have to run around in just fur or skin for a while. Most of the items she found in there she discovered would be worse than running around naked, however. Skimpy outfits made of black leather and lace, spiked collars and wristbands, as well as any number of interesting and sometimes painful-looking sex toys. 

Looking it over, Toriko had to wonder if it were preferable to remain naked, or to wear some of it. Finally she sighed and just decided to make due with what was available. She pulled on a bra and panties made of black lace first, and added to that a short black leather skirt and a matching top that seemed to reveal more than it concealed, then finally pulled on some black leather boots and fingerless gloves. 

Glancing at herself in the full-length mirror next to the wardrobe, she had to smirk at just how absurd she thought she looked. She looked like a hooker, she thought. No way could she walk around in public like this. 

Shaking her head a bit, she poked through a box on top of the dresser, and found some jewelry, most of it made of silver. Some various rings, some set with different colored gemstones or covered in runes, a necklace with a silver crescent moon pendant hanging from it, some silver earrings as well. She opted to leave those items alone for the moment. 

She turned and strode out onto the balcony, pushing aside the red-and-gold patterned curtains for the moment and looking off at the landscape. This wasn't the tallest tower in the castle, the one across from the balcony and toward the right holding that honor. It was still plenty tall enough to make something so straightforward as jumping a foolhardy prospect, even for a shapeshifter. The castle was located high in the mountains of one of the larger of the Sunrise Islands, and she could spy the lake she had almost escaped into previously in a small valley off to the left. She could not quite make out the ocean that she knew had to be there far into the distance on the horizon. 

Toriko sighed and turned to glance back into the room. Tying together bed sheets and curtains to make a makeshift rope was cliché, but it might do the trick, she thought. But then there were guards below who would easily see her if she attempted something like that. Perhaps a bit of trickery, to conceal her or cause a distraction, she thought. That might work. 

She wandered back into the room again to try to think about and get started on her plan of escape, but then she thought, Zannin had caught up with her and dragged her back so easily the last time. What was to stop him from doing it again? How could she get away without him finding her? What would he do to her this time if he caught her? 

Her musings were interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and Makoto came in, carrying a tray with a bowl with vegetables and rice and a glass of ice cold lernade. He paused for a moment in the doorway when he saw what she was wearing, and gave a low whistle and a small grin. "I've brought you something to eat, Toriko. I see you're settling into your new quarters well?" 

"Thanks," she said, taking the food and eating heartily. "I must say, though, that this would hardly have been my first choice in attire. Whoever stocked this place had very strange tastes." 

"It looks good on you," Makoto replied. "You have quite the lovely form." 

"Heh, so you're a pervert, too," Toriko said with a smirk. 

"I speak only the truth," he said, smiling faintly. 

Toriko chuckled softly and munched on her food. "So tell me, Makoto. Why do you do it?" 

"Do what?" he wondered. 

"Why do you work here?" she asked. "Why do you serve Zannin?" 

He paused for a moment, as if considering his answer. "This is my life," he replied. "And this is my home. Where else should I be?" 

"This is hardly much of a home," Toriko said, shaking her head. "What about a village, or a city, a bustling seaport on one of the islands, or a remote rustic farm somewhere?" 

"I rather like it here, myself," Makoto replied. "Besides, the castle has become a good deal brighter now that you're here." 

Toriko blushed a bit. "I don't even want to be here," she said quietly. 

"I hope you don't try to escape again," Makoto told her. "You won't be able to get away, and I'd hate to think what would be done to you once you were caught again. I don't think you would enjoy it at all." 

The kitsune sighed again and finished up her food, setting the bowl aside. "Do you really think so?" she asked. "Or are you just saying that because of who you work for?" 

"I think so," he said, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. "Please don't do it. It'll only make things worse on yourself." 

Toriko sighed and looked up into his dark brown eyes for a moment, then looked away. Something about him was really starting to wear at her. "Alright," she said quietly. 

Makoto smiled at her and patted her shoulder gently. "You've made my day, my dear. I would hate to lose you so soon. Be well." He gathered up the empty bowl again and headed out of the room. She listened for the click that would indicate the door had been locked behind him, but didn't hear it. 

Toriko was conflicted. She lay out on the soft and comfortable bed and stared up into the canopy and wondered just what the hell Zannin was playing at here. The door was unlocked! She could get out easily, even without making a rope of sheets and curtains! But there were probably guards on the other side just waiting for her to try something stupid like that. And Zannin clearly had his own share of magic about him, otherwise how could he have tracked her so quickly down to the lake? 

Maybe it wasn't really so bad, she thought. He hadn't really done anything too horrible to her, after all. Whatever sort of game he was playing here, she was sure she could spring her own tricks on him, given the right opportunity. And if that didn't arise, she'd just have to make an opportunity. But she didn't feel that this was the right one. It was too open and obvious. It was obviously a trap, and he was clearly just waiting to see if she would step into it. Well, she wasn't about to fall for it. 

A while later, she heard the door open and she scrambled to her feet to face the wolf-man Zannin standing in the doorway. "Excellent," he drawled. "I see you have changed into more appropriate attire." Toriko smirked at him. He closed the door behind him and walked over to her to run a paw down her body. 

"You didn't exactly leave me much else to wear," she replied, flinching away from his touch. 

"It's just missing one thing," he said, going over to the wardrobe and pulling out a black leather collar studded with silver spikes. "Every pet needs a collar." 

"What, you want me to wear that thing?" Toriko said. She made a face as she looked at it. The studs were so positioned to press against the skin of the neck on the inside. 

Zannin didn't respond, instead coming over to her to try to put it on her, but she shied away. He grabbed her roughly and forced her to the floor, holding her down with a knee as he put the stinging collar around her neck. "You won't get this one off, either," he said in a low snarl as he released her again. 

The feel of the silver against her skin was like a low, dull throbbing pain, not enough to really hurt but more than sufficient to make her unable to forget it was there. She did, of course, promptly attempt to try to remove it, and the mere attempt thereof caused the silver studs to flare up into outright agony. Toriko buckled and fell to the floor writhing in torment for several moments before the pain finally subsided back into a low throb again. 

"I would suggest you not try that again," Zannin told her. "It is enchanted to last longer with each attempt. It would eventually get to the point to which you would have to beg me to make it stop." 

Toriko gathered herself and climbed unsteadily to her feet again, and glared up at him. Even now she could feel herself being drawn in further, her chances of getting away from here slipping away. She sighed softly and looked away from him again. 

"You may see no leash upon it, but do not think that there is not one there, also," Zannin went on. "For the further you go away from me, the more agony you shall feel from the mystic leash pulling taut against your neck." 

Toriko wasn't sure how to respond to that, but from what she had seen so far it didn't seem particularly far out of his ability to manage such a thing, and she didn't doubt that he would do it. No, this definitely was one situation which she would not extricate herself from in a straightforward manner, as the feel of the silver studded collar on her neck so acutely reminded her. 

He approached her to run his paw along her half-bare skin again, but she turned away and strode out onto the balcony. He didn't follow, leaving her alone and closing the door behind him. The sun was setting far off in the west, giving the sky a cast of vibrant red, orange, and violet for a time. The two moons hung in the air near one another as the stars began to come out. Green Halladan, the smaller of the two and a gibbous moon tonight, drifted below the larger silver crescent, Thondorron. 

As she looked out silently alone on the balcony, staring off at the moons, warm tears began to roll down her cheeks. She had never felt so alone and trapped before in her young life. She didn't even know if her friends were still alive, or if anyone would even try to come for her. The best she could figure is that she'd have to work under the assumption that she was on her own and that nobody would come to try to rescue her. If she was going to get out of this situation, she'd have to do it by herself. But more and more, she found herself playing a game to which she did not know the rules, and she felt like right now, she was losing at it. Perhaps, she thought, she would have to find some way to make her own rules. 

Toriko sighed and wiped her eyes, shaking her head and going back into the chamber again, irritated by the constant stinging of the silver-studded collar, but determined to make the best of the situation she could. One way or another. 

She took off her clothes except for her bra and panties and set them aside went and relieved herself in the adjacent bathroom, then curled up in the comfortable bed, closing her eyes and trying unsuccessfully to forget about the feel of the collar on her neck long enough to sleep. She ended up laying there thinking about her friends, about the silly elf who always had a tune for every occasion, about the good-natured pirate woman who dressed oddly and spoke in a most peculiar manner, about the eccentric mermaid who preferred to spend her time on land rather than in the water because it was "more exotic" to her. 

She was sure she would likely never see some or all of them again. The battle had been fierce as a group of the fierce shark-men known as the Palistelli came out of the sea to fight alongside a pack of wolf-men down from the mountains. She had no idea why the two groups were working together, as the Palistelli had always been disdainful of all landfolk in general. And the wolf-men, thought by and large to have grown extinct during the War of Transformation, but still lived on in the wilderness of Albrynnia and the Sunrise Islands, they were savage and bloodthirsty, much like the Palistelli themselves. 

The coastal village she and her friends had been staying after a recent sea journey in was quickly overwhelmed by the combined onslaught. They had tried to flee, but had become separated. The last thing she had remembered was being struck from behind hard, before everything went black, and she woke in the dungeon. 

Still haunted by memories and worry for the fate of her friends when she didn't even know what her own fate would hold, Toriko finally drifted off to sleep, lulled into a relatively peaceful rest by the comfort of the soft bed.


	4. The Leash

Toriko woke to the feel of sunlight streaming in through the half-open curtains onto her eyelids. She sighed softly and stirred awake, jolted fully to wakefulness by the sudden reminder of the collar around her neck. It was already well into the morning by the time the light had reached her, but she was glad for the sleep and felt a good deal better rested than she had in a while. 

She climbed out of bed slowly and reluctantly put on her "clothing", still not liking wearing it and considering just adding a curtain or a bed sheet to it. She wondered to herself, why was she still here? Why wasn't she at least trying to get away from here? If she got to one of the villages, doubtless the shaman there would be able to put a protective spell over her to prevent Zannin from finding her, and to remove the collar safely. She certainly could not remain here, threat or no. 

The door opened momentarily and Makoto came in, carrying a tray of breakfast for her. Her nose perked up at the smell of hot buttered pancakes smothered in maple syrup and topped with some fresh sliced strawberries, and she went over to take it and eat eagerly. 

"I trust you're still okay, Toriko?" Makoto asked her gently. 

"Sure, fine," she said offhandedly through a mouthful of pancakes. 

"I worry about you, you know," he said softly. "I fear you might be thinking of doing something rash." 

Toriko grunted softly. How could he know what she was planning? But not like she hadn't been thinking of escape ever since she'd first been brought here. "Don't worry about me," she muttered, sighing softly. 

"I just don't want to see you get hurt," Makoto told her. The food was delicious, but she ate it hungrily and a little hurriedly. "Take care of yourself." He took the empty plate and left her alone again. 

She waited for a few minutes after he was gone to head for the door, opening it tentatively to take a look around. Sure enough, as she had suspected, the door was unlocked, but surprisingly there were no guards around in sight at all outside the door. Perhaps Zannin was merely relying upon his magical tools to keep her in check rather than fallible human guards. Regardless, she took it as an invitation that she was free to roam the castle as she pleased, and headed outside and down the spiral staircase. 

Along the corridor at the bottom of the stairs, she did spot a few guards, but rather than skulking about, she acted as though she belonged there, and they paid her little mind, although she could feel them staring and grinning a bit at her clothing as she passed. She would definitely have to do something about that. 

Coming upon what appeared to be another bedroom off on one of the side corridors with the door having been left slightly ajar, she poked her head inside and took a look around. It wasn't occupied at the moment, perhaps the room of one of the higher ranking guards. Toriko found the clothing she was looking for in the wardrobe. Although it was a bit too large for her, and men's clothing at that, she still gladly slipped it on over top of her other clothing, and felt much better for it. 

Now she just had to get out of here. She headed toward the main entrance to the castle and found only two guards currently stationed there. Peering at them from out of sight from around a corner and behind a large decorative suit of armor, she flicked her hand to call upon a bit of magic to make a sound that could be heard outside the castle gates. 

"What was that?" one of the guards said to the other in some puzzlement. 

"Don't know," the other replied, peering off into the brush. "Maybe goblins trying to sneak up on the castle. I'll go check it out." 

With the remaining guard looking the other way, Toriko slipped out from behind him and quickly took on fox form, vanishing into the underbrush. "There was definitely something out there," the guard said behind her. 

"Just some animal probably," the other said, shaking his head. "I don't see anything." The guard returned to his post at the gate again, not noticing the black-and-white fox slipping away into the foliage away from the castle. 

Her clothes might have shifted with her, but the silver-studded collar had adjusted itself to her smaller form, and she could still feel it pricking against her skin as she darted off through the leaves and down into the valley. There was a village down here somewhere, she knew. She thought she had seen one from the balcony while looking off at the landscape. Someone there would be able to help her, if she could get there. She remained in fox form as she went, as it was better suited to travel through the wilderness and would be able to move faster through heavy foliage. 

Constantly afraid that someone would catch up to her, Toriko came to the edge of the village. Even as Zannin had said, the collar was causing a stinging pain throughout her body, gradually growing worse and worse. She shifted back into human form out of sight of the villagers, as shapeshifters were not too common on the Sunrise Islands, and after millennia of persecution simply for being able to change form, they still were wary of the reactions of mensch, the ordinary people without magical abilities.. 

She stumbled into the village, her mind clouded with pain, and slurred to the first person she saw, "The shaman. I need to see the shaman. Please..." 

"Oh my," said the village woman. "Are you sick or hurt? Come on, let's get you to the shaman." She helped the kitsune down the street and into one of the larger huts, politely not commenting on her men's clothing or the strange collar around her neck. 

The shaman's hut was pungent and filled with herbs, bones, and bits of this and that, and the shaman himself was a dark-skinned man of Albrynnian descent with long hair twisted back into braids. He looked up as they came in and urged her to lay down on a cot, dismissing the woman who had brought her in. He sat down next to her and looked her over, and she clenched her eyes shut against the pain. 

"Well now, what is wrong with you?" he murmured quietly. "And what is this..." She could feel him touch the collar thoughtfully. "Dark magic about this, very dark, and very strong. I do not know if it is within my power to remove it, but perhaps something to ease your pain." She heard the clinking of glass and the sound of a liquid pouring into a cup. "Drink this." 

She felt the cool glass press against her lips, and she swallowed the liquid obediently, it sending a numbing chill through her body that at least managed to take the edge off the pain for the moment, although it made her very groggy and unable to focus. The feeling urged her into sleep, and she did not fight it, trusting that the shaman would find some way to help her, one way or another, or perhaps call in a more powerful shaman from another town if he could not. 

Toriko woke from her drugged sleep to agonizing, blinding pain. She did not know how long she had been asleep, but the effects of whatever the shaman had given her had definitely worn off by now. She tried to look out the window to see what time it was, but her vision was blurred by the pain. Writhing and crying out in sheer torment, she heard footsteps as the shaman came running to her side again. 

"I have no way to remove it," he said apologetically. "All my attempts only seem to make things worse. Here, drink, and sleep, don't give up hope yet. I may yet find a way." 

She barely managed to swallow all of the cool, soothing liquid again through spasms of pain, but she did get it down, and let herself fall quickly into sleep once again. It was a blank, dreamless sleep, but at least it didn't hurt so much then. 

The next time she woke, the pain was gone, and she blinked up into Makoto's warm, brown eyes. "Are you alright?" he said gently. "You shouldn't have tried to do that. Here, come on, let's get you back to the castle." 

Toriko was not really feeling like arguing at the moment, letting him put an arm around her and support her as she climbed slowly to her feet and went outside. It was night again, the green and silver moons hanging in the sky overhead as they slowly walked back out of the village and toward Zannin's dark castle once again. 

"Did Zannin send you for me?" she asked him quietly as they walked up the mountains, once her head had cleared a bit more. 

"I came for you," Makoto said. "Nobody told me to. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I knew what had been done to you, and I wasn't sure if you'd be able to get back on your own." 

"Thank you," she murmured softly, looking to the ground. 

They came back to the castle and went inside, and Makoto said, "Here, come on, let's head to the kitchen and get you some food." 

He led her off down a corridor and into the kitchens, where he dished her out a big bowl of rice from a pot and passed it over to her. She sat down and began to eat quietly, glad for something in her stomach again. She wasn't sure how long she had been laying in that village, but she was definitely hungry. 

Makoto took a seat across from her with some food of his own. "You're going to be punished for that, you know. I mean, more than you already were just from the collar." He sighed and shook his head slowly. "I really wish you hadn't gone and done that, for your own sake." 

"I'm sorry," she said quietly as she munched on her rice. 

He reached across the table and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "I know. You'll be okay, just hang in there. You'd be better off to just do what was asked of you. I know you're scared and frightened, but you know, it's really not so bad as you might fear. It's certainly preferable to the alternative." 

Toriko sighed and glanced about the room briefly. There wasn't anyone else in the eating area just now. Regardless, she kept her voice low so as not to be overheard. "I don't know," she murmured. "I just feel so lost and alone. Zannin scares the hell out of me. He's so aggressive and forceful. I don't know what to do." 

Makoto sighed and shook his head. "Just do what is asked of you and everything will be better. I promise." 

Toriko looked down at her food and finished shoving it into her mouth, and stood up slowly. "I don't know. Maybe. I guess I don't really have much choice in the matter, though, do I?" 

"There are always choices," Makoto replied as he led her back off to the tower where her room was again. "But there are also always consequences for those choices." They arrived back in her room. "You should probably get out of those clothes, too." He tugged at the tunic she had picked up in the guard's bedroom. 

Toriko proceeded to pull off the loose clothing with a sigh, and Makoto gathered it up to take it back to wherever she'd gotten it from, leaving her alone again for the moment. She sunk down with her back up against the end of the bed and closed her eyes, burying her face in her hands. The leash had certainly held her tight and there was nothing she could do about it. She had no doubt that Makoto had told the poor shaman something to make him stop wondering and worrying about her, so she did not think she would get any help from that angle either. 

All she could do now was wonder just how angry Zannin would be at her for trying to escape, and just what it was that he was going to do to her because of it. She did not look forward to it, but felt it was pretty inevitable by this point. She could only hope that she might find some way to improve the situation soon.


	5. The Pet

Some while later, her depressive musings were interrupted by the door slamming open and Zannin striding into her room and up to her. Her eyes snapped up as he grabbed her by the arms and hauled her up to his face, forcing her to look into his dark brown eyes. Toriko was instantly paralyzed with terror. 

"So," he snarled at her. "You thought you'd finally gotten away that time, didn't you. Did you not think for a moment to listen to me? Did you think I had been lying to you about the leash? Foolish fox! Are all kitsune so stupid, or is it just you? What use have I for you if you won't listen to a single thing I say to you?" 

"Please don't hurt me," Toriko whimpered. "Please don't kill me." 

"Fah!" he growled, flinging her back against the wall. She struck the stone hard and gave a loud grunt of pain as she slumped to the floor again. "No, I won't kill you. Even if I were so inclined to waste my toys so readily. No, you might wish you were dead, but I definitely will not kill you." 

Toriko tried to climb back to her feet again, still dazed and hurting from striking the wall, but she only managed to make it to her knees. Zannin came up to her to stand over her, glaring down at her darkly. He put a paw on her face and made her look back up at him. 

"That's a much better position for you, my little pet," he snarled. "Perhaps after spending some time on your knees you'll appreciate being able to stand on your feet." 

"Zannin--" Toriko began. 

"You," Zannin interrupted, "will address me as Lord Zannin, or Master." He turned abruptly to head for the door. "Follow me." As she began to climb to her feet, he pointed at her and snapped, "No. You will walk on all fours, or crawl on your hands and knees, like the house pet you are." 

Toriko whimpered at the prospect of being forced to crawl through the castle like some animal. But as Makoto had said, there were always choices. She could choose to refuse, or to obey, and right now she didn't see how refusing would help her situation any at all. She sighed reluctantly and got down on her hands and knees to follow after him. Down the stairs and through the corridors, she kept her face to the ground and tried to ignore the stares she could feel of the guards and servants as they tittered quietly at their passing. 

He took her around the castle by a long route to another room, thankfully at least not the torture chamber down in the dungeons this time, although from what she could see of it from her vantage point on the floor, she wasn't sure that it was all that much better. If anything, the implements here seemed to be of a nature intended to be used in more sexual situations than genuine torture. 

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked quietly. 

Zannin turned to her and corrected her, "'What are you going to do to me, _Master_.'" He paused for a moment, then prompted her, "Say it." 

Toriko swallowed hard and repeated, "What are you going to do to me, _Master_?" 

"Much better," Zannin said, satisfied, and he turned to look through some various tools. "I will, of course, need to punish you for your little indiscretion there. Hmm, this will do." He pulled out a leather whip and gave it an experimental crack in the air, which made Toriko flinch at the thought of it. "Take off your clothing," Zannin ordered. Toriko sighed and looked to the ground, her hesitation earning her a stinging snap of the whip against her leg. "Now." 

Reluctantly, Toriko pulled off the revealing leather garments and the black lace, setting them aside to kneel naked before him. Zannin nodded in satisfaction and proceeded to take the whip to her back, the cracking leather leaving welts that would have left an ordinary person's back sore for days, but that they both knew would regenerate long before that. Nonetheless it did not make it hurt any less as he did it, seeming to take great sadistic pleasure in causing her pain. Again and again the whip fell, to the point where she wasn't sure just how long he intended to keep it up, and she quickly lost count. 

But finally, he stopped and set aside the whip, leaving her kneeling there on the hard stone floor, the pain of the slowly-regenerating bloody wounds leaving her dazed and panting softly. "Now," he said to her quietly. "You're not going to disobey me again, now, are you?" 

"No, Master," she found herself murmuring softly, staring at the floor. 

"Good," Zannin said, turning away. "Then I will give you a choice. You may wait until your wounds fully regenerate to put your clothes back on, and go around naked until then. Or if you're too ashamed of your body, you may put them back on here." 

Toriko sat there for a moment on her knees, and considered that the feel of the tight clothing against her raw back would doubtless be worse than the residual pain of it yet. And it wasn't like her clothing actually concealed particularly much anyway. Much as she hated to admit it, that was probably the better choice at the moment. "I will go naked, Master," she told him quietly. 

"Very well," he said, gathering up her clothing into a bundle and tucking it under his arm. "Come." As she began to climb to her feet, he snapped, "I did not give you permission to stand." 

"Sorry, Master," she muttered softly, sighing and going to crawl after him on her hands and knees. 

Satisfied for the moment, Zannin led her back out into the corridors again, but not back to her room just yet. He wound his way around toward some sort of audience chamber, and he went over and took a seat on a twisted and spiked iron throne, dropping the pile of clothes behind it in a heap. He pointed to a spot on his left and said, "You will sit there, like the obedient and loyal pet you are." 

Toriko sighed softly and went to sit down where he had indicated, her back still stinging from the flogging, flushing a bit involuntarily in embarrassment as the chamber was hardly empty. For the moment there were only guards and servants around, but it wasn't long before people whose clothing indicated that they were messengers and minor nobles began to file in to see Zannin. They cast odd looks toward her, although they politely did not say anything, they definitely noticed her, and she felt so ashamed and humiliated that she hardly listened to a word of the reports and messages they were bringing in. The situation on the front, messages coming in about food shortages, the outcomes of battles won and lost. 

She considered briefly trying to disrupt his meetings in some way, but in the end decided that it would likely only bring down harsh punishment upon her again. The collar and the wounds on her back reminded her acutely of that, even as the welts healed up under her enhanced regenerative powers from being a shapeshifter. Some while later, when the activity had quieted down a bit, she went to reach for her clothing to put it back on again, although the wounds weren't completely healed just yet. 

"Did I give you permission to put your clothes back on?" Zannin snarled at her. 

Toriko pulled her hand back and said sheepishly, "No, Master. May I please put my clothes back on?" 

"No you may not," Zannin replied. "Your wounds have not finished regenerating yet." 

"Yes, Master," she said quietly, looking to the floor. Oh, how she hated this all, but if it would allow her to avoid another, worse punishment, she'd go along with it as much as she had to for the moment. Toriko sighed softly and turned her eyes away. 

"My pet does not seem happy," Zannin said pointedly to her. "Does she think she is being treated unfairly?" 

"No, Master," Toriko replied. 

"Good," Zannin said. "Because you are mine to do with as I please. Never forget that, my pet. Remain here." 

She continued to sit there naked as bidden as he headed off out of the chamber for a few minutes. He returned shortly with a bowl of something hot and delicious-smelling, and she remembered how long it had been since she had last eaten. He sat the bowl and spoon down in front of her, and she saw that it was a hearty vegetable soup with peas, carrots, potatoes, beans, and turnips. 

Toriko reached for the spoon to start eating, but as soon as she touched it she pulled her hand away in surprise as she realized it was made of pure silver. Zannin chuckled softly and said to her, "You may eat with the spoon as a civilized being, or lean over and eat out of the bowl like the pet you are. Or go hungry. Your choice." 

There were always choices, she thought quietly, and at the moment she was inclined to reach out and grab onto any small choice that remained to her fervently and hold onto it for the sake of sanity. Clenching her teeth, she went and reached for the spoon again. It wasn't so much, considering she already had to deal with the constant feeling of the collar against the soft, pale skin of her neck. She proceeded to eat, carefully spooning the hot soup into her mouth so as not to accidentally spill it when she felt the sharp sting of the silver against her tongue. Zannin just sat by on his spiked iron throne, watching her with sadistic amusement as she ate. 

Once had had finished eating the soup, Zannin called over a servant to take the bowl and spoon away again to clean them. He reached over to run his paw lightly down her back, and she flinched a bit at his touch. Zannin smirked faintly at her reaction and pulled his paw away, and said in a soft snarl, "Soon, my pet, you will long for my touch, you will crave my body, you will be eager to do absolutely anything that it might please me." 

"No, Master," she replied quietly. "You can force me to do what you wish through threat of pain and punishment, but it will take far more than that to make me serve you willingly or gladly." 

Zannin merely chuckled darkly at her reply. "Yes, and that is true, for the moment at least. But do not think that it will remain true forever. You shall see." 

"If you say so, Master," Toriko commented lightly. She certainly wasn't about to start arguing about it just now, especially as another man was just coming into the audience chamber. 

The new arrival was a dark-skinned man, better dressed than the others who had been coming in here to speak with Zannin previously, and although he was accompanied by an entourage of a handful of guards wearing slightly different uniforms than those worn in this castle, the others remained at the door, taking up positions alongside it to wait for their lord to be finished with his business. He came up toward them and absently looked the two of them over with dark eyes. 

"Ah," Zannin said as he looked at the newcomer. "Greetings and welcome to you, Yuzora." 

"I say, Zannin, you've certainly done some to brighten up this place. Is that a new tapestry, the one with the bleeding elves? Very nice, a most splendid display," Yuzora commented absently, glancing over Toriko wryly. "But why do you have a woman wearing naught but a spiked collar sitting beside your throne?" 

Zannin chuckled softly and told him, "This here is my latest pet, Toriko her name is. Is she not such a marvelous specimen of kitsune?" 

"Mmm, yes," Yuzora said, looking her over critically. "Wherever did you find such a thing?" 

"She was captured in the recent attack on the village of Kanson. Quite the lucky thing to have captured her alive, I daresay, as most of those that had been there had been killed in the battle. But her regenerative powers saved her from what would otherwise have been a lethal wound to a normal being." 

"Ah, I see," Yuzora commented lightly. "I trust she has not given you much trouble?" 

"Oh, she's a right spirited little fox, she is," Zannin said. "But she is learning to obey quite nicely. Don't you think?" 

"Yes, yes," Yuzora said. "There are matters which I wish to discuss with you in private, however. Shall we reconvene into a quieter location, perhaps?" 

"Of course," Zannin said. He turned to Toriko and told her, "You may put your clothes back on. Then return to your chambers and wait there." 

"Yes, Master," Toriko said quietly, turning her eyes to the ground and pulling out her clothing as the two of them headed off into a room off to the side of the main audience chamber. Once she was dressed again, such as it was, she sighed softly and turned her eyes to the floor and went to crawl back toward her tower chamber. Zannin might not be presently watching to see whether she walked or crawled back, but he seemed to otherwise be quite aware of what she was up to, and she wasn't about to take the chance at the moment. 

Once back in her chambers, she stripped down to her underwear again and crawled into bed, curling up beneath the comfortable sheets, glad for the momentary respite from the day's trials and harassment. With her attempt at escape only having made matters worse, rather than bringing about the least bit of success, she wasn't about to try something like that again. Not without a good deal more planning and a reasonable chance of success. She still hoped to find some other way to improve the situation, but at the moment, that hope was beginning to slowly fade.


	6. The Bath

Toriko woke in the morning to the light streaming in from the windows. For a moment she might think to entertain the thought that she was somewhere else, in that comfortable bed in the deceptively quiet and peaceful chamber at the top of the tower. But such was a flight of fancy she did not hold for long as she felt the insistent throbbing of the collar against her neck, and she sighed and climbed slowly out of bed. She reached for her clothes and pulled them on again one by one, not really particularly caring that she had worn the same clothes for the last... how many days had it been? Her mind was a whirl and even being able to see the sun's rising and setting, she had lost all sense of time. 

The door opened shortly, and she looked up to see Makoto standing there, and she relaxed in relief as she saw him and realized it wasn't Zannin back again. "Makoto," she said to him softly. "I'm glad to see you." 

Makoto smiled at her and said, "How are you doing? Your wounds healed up alright?" 

Toriko gave a nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. Can't even tell they were even there now." 

"That's good," he said. "I'm glad to hear it. Come on if you will, should get you cleaned up." 

"Alright," Toriko said, and proceeded to follow him to the door on her hands and knees. 

Makoto looked at her for a moment and said, "Why don't you just walk?" 

"Zannin told me to crawl or walk on all fours," Toriko replied, not getting up. 

"Well, I won't tell anyone," he said. But she didn't get up and just continued to follow him out down the stairs at a crawl. Glancing up for a moment at the bottom of the stairs, she thought she caught the faintest hint of a grin on his face, but then it was gone. Perhaps he was merely amused at her stubborn insistence to not dare to incur Zannin's wrath even when there wasn't anyone else around. She didn't really care, though. 

He led her down to a moderately large bath chamber in the keep. There wasn't anyone else present bathing at the moment in the shallow bathing pools set into the floor, which suited her well enough. However, although it bore a superficial resemblance to a traditional public bathhouse, she noticed that there appeared to be only one bathing area, and not separate areas for men and women. There was no separation between the changing area and the bathing area, and the walls, rather than being decorated with typical landscapes, were painted with images of carnal lust, nude figures forever frozen in the midst of sexual acts. There were showers and faucets, but they weren't strictly necessary anymore as most modern baths had cleansing enchantments to keep the water clean. 

When she looked back toward Makoto, she saw that he had taken off his clothing and set it aside while she was distracted and peering about the bath chamber. His body was smooth and flawless, not a mark or scar that one might expect from a guard or soldier, and there were tufts of dark hair on his chest and crotch. He was lean, strong, and muscular, although not grotesquely so. 

"Toriko?" he said, drawing her attention away from his body. 

"What?" she said, blinking up into his brown eyes. 

"You're staring." 

"Oh," she said sheepishly. "I'm sorry." 

"No, that's alright," he said, grinning a bit. "Here, let's get those off you." 

Makoto reached over to slowly start peeling the black leather and lace off her body, and while she flushed in embarrassment, she did not shy away from his touch as she had from Zannin's. His hands were strong and firm, but not too forceful or aggressive. Finally he pulled off her lace panties and bra and she stood naked before him. He glanced over her for a moment appreciatively, then pulled out a bar of soap and a towel from a nearby cupboard. 

"Here now, let's go get you cleaned up," Makoto said. "I'll wash you if you like." He crossed over toward one of the pools and she crawled after him. "Don't worry, there's no need for the faucets anymore. The place has an enchantment installed to keep the water clean and warm. Very convenient, if I must say so myself, as I much prefer actually washing in a pool than a shower." 

Toriko slid into the warm, soothing water after him. The pool was around two feet deep, and just warm enough to feel it without being uncomfortably hot. Makoto took the soap and slowly began to wash her back, massaging her a bit as he went, his strong fingers kneading her muscles and releasing tension she hadn't realized was there. It felt so good that all thought of the previous day's torments was forgotten for the moment. 

"There, that feels better now, doesn't it?" Makoto said softly, running his hands along her arms. 

"Mmm, yeah," Toriko murmured. 

He slipped his hands under her arms from behind her to wash her armpits, and from there he moved them around to her breasts, squeezing them sensually and pulling her close to press her back against his chest. From there she could easily feel his erection pressing against her inner thighs. 

"Makoto..." she whispered. 

"Have to get every bit of you clean," he told her, pulling away and moving around to her front. "Let's wash up those feet and legs now, shall we?" 

She could easily see that Makoto was quite clearly aroused as washed her feet one at a time, rubbing his fingers against them and kneading them gently, then moving slowly up her legs, massaging her knees that she had been crawling around upon. Then he worked his way further up little by little, running his hands along her hips and thighs, his fingers drifting up toward her crotch. Toriko was very much aroused herself by this point, by his touch and the sight of him, by his warm and gentle kindness. 

"Gotta wash every bit of you," he said quietly, tracing his fingers along her slit and rubbing gently at her clit underneath the warm water. "Every little bit." With his other hand, he proceeded to slide one finger up into her hole, rubbing at her from the inside under the amusingly flimsy pretext of washing. 

"Mmm..." Toriko leaned back against the side of the bathing pool, simply enjoying his attentions and the feel of him as he worked at her body. "Yeah, that feels good..." 

He put his arms around her and turned her around again, pulling her back against his chest again, and continuing his ministrations, one hand fondling her breasts while the other pleasured her slit. It felt so good, she didn't care for the moment what Zannin might think of it, and didn't care if anyone walked into the bathing chamber and saw them there. Judging by the images on the walls, she didn't figure that this was a particularly unusual activity to be taking place here anyway. She let all those concerns slide out of her mind as quickly as they entered it, allowing herself to surrender to the pleasure he was giving her as he brought her up into an orgasm. He held her close as her body was wracked with the spasms of her climax. 

"Oh, Makoto..." she murmured after a moment, leaning back against him and feeling his hard cock resting between her legs. 

"Do you want this?" he asked her quietly, rubbing his erection against her inner thigh to indicate his meaning. 

"Mmm. Oh yes," she said quietly. 

He ran his hands down her body slowly to her hips, taking a hold of them and gently pressing her cunt to the tip of his cock from behind her. She let out a soft gasp as he slid it up slowly into her body beneath the water. She was no virgin, certainly, but he was larger than the men she had been with before, almost to the point of being painfully so, but she didn't care and didn't mind, having gotten used to a little pain in recent days. It was a small price to pay for the joy and pleasure of it. 

He turned them around so that she could put her hands up against the side of the pool as he began to work himself within her, slowly sliding himself in and out. As he did that, he continued to fondle her breasts and clit with his hands, still bringing her pleasure in more ways than one. She moaned aloud at the feel of his thrusts slowly quickening within her body, lost in the sensation and excitement of the moment. She cried out as his touch brought her to climax once again, her entire body trembling and shaking in blind pleasure. 

Makoto dragged them out of the pool moments later and clasped his arms around her, holding her close. She closed her eyes and buried her face in his shoulder, although she accidentally pricked him with the spikes on her collar, causing him to flinch involuntarily for a moment. "You are so wonderful," she said to him quietly. 

"Mmm," Makoto murmured. "So are you, my dear. And now you're all clean, inside and out." 

She chuckled at him softly. "How can one get clean doing things so dirty as that?" she said with a smirk. 

"What's so dirty about sex?" he wondered, running a hand slowly down her back. "It's a natural part of life. It's necessary to create life, even, unless you resort to magic." 

Toriko pulled her head away from him and just looked into his dark eyes, grinning a little and still giddy from the pleasure of the sex. Then she leaned in and kissed him on the lips passionately. He seemed a little startled at first, but returned the kiss eagerly and fervently. After a few moments, she pulled away and whispered to him, "You make it all worth it." 

"Mmm," Makoto replied. "Do I? I would hope that I could do some small thing to improve your day. But I pursue my own pleasures as well as yours. Well enough that they may coincide from time to time." He grinned lightly at her. 

Toriko chuckled again at his playful response and just contenting herself with holding him close and being held by him for the moment. But it wasn't to last, as he slowly disentangled himself from her and reached over to grab the towel he had set near the pool and began to dry the two of them off. 

"You're probably hungry, too," Makoto said. "Let's get you down to the kitchen and get you something to eat then, shall we?" 

Once they were dressed again, she proceeded to crawl after him as he left the bathing chambers and headed over to the kitchen. She sat on the floor by the hearth as Makoto fixed her a sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese, and brought it over to her, along with a glass of lernade. Toriko took them and ate and drank gratefully, glad that at least she didn't have to deal with silverware today. 

"Thank you," she said quietly as she ate. 

"You are most certainly welcome," Makoto replied with a grin, watching her. "I'm just doing my job, after all, to look after you and make sure you're well cared for. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it from time to time. Each time you smile makes the castle just a little bit brighter." 

Toriko flashed a small smile to him. She knew her own feelings for him were strong enough by this point that she would stay here even without the threat of punishment for trying to run away, but she still held some hope that he might see reason and turn away from his dark master. But even if they did run away from here together or something, would Zannin not still find them, and exact harsh punishment upon them for their betrayal? 

"Toriko?" Makoto said, drawing her attention to the present again. "Your body is here but your mind is on Halladan. Something bothering you?" 

She shook her head slowly. "Nothing more than you might expect," she told him. "I just wish we might have met under better circumstances. I just wish things could be better." 

"Do not fret, my dear," Makoto replied. "I believe things will start looking up for you in the near future." He smiled at her warmly. 

"I do hope so," she said softly, sighing and finishing up her sandwich. 

Makoto stood up and said, "I have duties to attend to. I trust you can find your way back to your room on your own?" 

Toriko nodded and reached over to give him a spontaneous hug and a small kiss. "I'll see you later, then?" 

He nodded and said, "Without a doubt." 

With that, Toriko climbed to her hands and knees and crawled back down the corridors and up the stairs to her tower chamber. Thoughts of Makoto and memory of the day still whirled through her mind, and she believed that she was, perhaps against better judgment and wisdom, falling in love with him. It would remain to be seen what, if anything, would come of that, but for the moment he was the one ray of light and hope she still held onto within the darkness that had engulfed her.


	7. The Banquet

When the door opened again, it was Zannin this time. She sat upright and looked up at him as he approached. He looked down at her with large brown eyes and said, "There will be a banquet at sunset tonight. I expect you to be there. You will be on your best behavior, my pet, or you will be punished harshly. Do you understand?" 

"Yes, Master," Toriko replied quietly. 

"Good," Zannin said sharply, turning to head for the door. "Come." 

Toriko sighed inwardly and turned to crawl after him down the stairs and the corridors again. She still hated this, and hoped that he would give her permission to walk soon, and she hated being so completely reliant on his merest command. But all her thoughts and plans and considerations to get away from here had come to naught, and she would not abandon Makoto. 

They came down to a moderately large banquet hall, and the guests had apparently yet to arrive as there were only servants bustling about making last-minute preparations and guards standing at the doorways. Zannin pointed her to a spot to the left side of the ornate chair at the head of the table. "You will sit here at my side and eat scraps from the table like the house pet you are." 

"Yes, Master," Toriko murmured, taking a seat where he had indicated reluctantly. 

He went off for a few minutes to see about something or another before returning to take a seat at the head of the table. "The guests will be arriving shortly," he said, not looking at her but she got the impression he was really talking to her, as there wasn't anyone else close enough to hear him. "They are mostly the minor lords in charge of the various regions and towns on this island, beholden to me, because I rule this island now. Yuzora, however, rules the three smaller islands to the southeast, although he controls roughly the same land area and population as I do." 

Toriko just nodded quietly, not responding to him, and glanced up to watch the submissive nobles as they filed into the hall one by one. Some were confident and self-assured, while others seemed to be scared to death of Zannin and looked as though they wished to be anywhere in the world other than here, but were only here to avoid likely threats of retribution for their disobedience. Yuzora was among the last to arrive, and he strolled in almost casually and took a seat right next to Toriko, on Zannin's left hand. 

Once the guests had all arrived, Zannin stood up and raised his glass, and said, "I bid you all welcome to my palace. May the future bring cooperation and glory. Let the feast begin." He didn't seem inclined to give any lengthy, inspirational speeches at the moment, merely sitting back down and taking a drink, and starting in on the food that the servants brought in dish by dish. 

Yuzora nibbled absently on a bit of meat and said, "I say, Zannin, you put on quite the feast, although it's a bit light on the meat products. Have you considered including some more exotic dishes? This human flesh is well-prepared enough, certainly, but I find it rather bland and tasteless compared to a nice elf or merfolk. Elf meat is so tender and sweet, and sushi with mermaid meat is simply divine." 

Zannin chuckled darkly aside to him and said, "Yuzora, such the connoisseur of unique tastes. No, I'm afraid I have none of that available at the moment." 

"A pity," Yuzora said, shrugging a bit. Toriko's stomach turned at the conversation, and when Zannin tossed her a slice of apple, she hardly even felt like eating it. "I say, have my comments disturbed your delightful little pet here? I daresay she looks positively green. Perhaps she would prefer some nice tofu instead?" 

Toriko cast him a brief glare and shoved the bit of apple into her mouth, munching on it quietly. Zannin snickered softly and said, "It is quite amusing sometimes to see her reactions to things. You should have seen how she reacted to the first time I tried to feed her human flesh. I daresay she thought it was delicious until I told her what it was." 

"So, tell me, Zannin," Yuzora said, picking at a bit of meat. "What do you want for her?" 

"She's not for sale, Yuzora," he replied, rolling his eyes. 

"Come now, Zannin. That simply means that you won't accept too small a price for her. A real, live kitsune is quite the prize, after all. Perhaps, oh, say, five hundred hannas?" Toriko was surprised, as that was a fairly sizeable amount of money, enough to live comfortably for a year. 

"I told you, Yuzora, she's not for sale." 

"A thousand, then?" 

"No," Zannin replied firmly. 

"Tsk, you drive such a hard bargain," Yuzora said languidly, lounging back in his seat and licking some sauce off his fingers. "Alright then. If money isn't what you're interested in, perhaps you'll find something else of more interest. In exchange for control of the kitsune, I'll cede to you control of the smallest of the three major islands under my command, Kazeshima." 

"Kazeshima? What makes you think I'd care about that windy chunk of rock?" 

Yuzora chuckled lightly. "Very well, then, how about Kazeshima, the thousand hannas, plus I will throw in one enchanted silver katana. What do you say, hmm?" 

"No," Zannin said firmly. 

"Oh, but perhaps we should ask the dear fox what her thoughts are on the matter," Yuzora said with a grin, turning to look down at her again. "I say, girl, has Zannin here mistreated you? Has he abused you, tortured you, raped you? Because I can assure you that I will do none of these things to you if you come with me. What do you say?" 

Toriko swallowed hard, and looked back up at the man. She didn't know much about him, but from the little she had heard, she didn't like him one bit. And Makoto was here, so she felt it was better to stay with the evil she knew than go with the one she didn't. "I would rather stay here with Lord Zannin, sir," she replied quietly. 

Zannin grinned smugly at Yuzora and shook his head slowly, then asked, "Why do you want her so badly?" 

"Oh, do you have any idea how delicious kitsune meat is?" Yuzora commented almost offhandedly. "You shapeshifters are so convenient for that, you know, because if you're careful not to take too much at one time it'll just regenerate and you'll have a never-ending supply of meat." 

Toriko blanched, and felt as though she were about to spit up the bit of apple she had just eaten. She was certainly glad for having chosen as she did, as being treated as a pet was at least preferable to being turned into a piece of cattle! Her disgusted shudder brought a dark chuckle from Yuzora. 

"I say, Zannin, I don't think your pet much likes that idea, hmm?" he said. "Clearly you have not trained her particularly well, I would say. Tsk, tsk. Such sloppy execution, that one would think you were being far too kind and lenient to your toys. I could remedy that, certainly, quite easily." 

Yuzora went to get up from his chair, reaching over toward Toriko, and Zannin snapped at him, "You will not touch her. She is not yours to touch." 

"Do relax, Zannin," Yuzora assured him. "I was not going to damage your little pet." 

Toriko didn't really care what Yuzora was intending on doing, she just didn't think she would like it much at all. As he moved a bit, she saw a length of exposed, brown ankle, and launched herself at it, biting down on him hard and wrapping her arms around the leg tightly. She shifted into her hybrid form, sinking her canine teeth into his flesh hard enough to draw blood, and causing him to cry out in pain. Zannin laughed aloud as Yuzora flailed about, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the irritated fox-woman from his leg. 

"I will call my guards on you if you don't let go, you foul little vixen," Yuzora snapped at her. "Zannin, tell her to release me at once." 

Zannin, still laughing, replied, "I think not. Far too amusing to see you getting a taste of your own desserts. Or perhaps it's the fox who is getting a taste?" He laughed again. "But are you such a pathetic mage that you cannot extricate yourself from the grip of a mere pet without help?" 

"I do so hate you, Zannin." Toriko could feel his blood running down her lips, some of it into her mouth, and taste the metallic tang of it, but she ignored that for the moment, encouraged by Zannin's approval for what she'd already wanted to do anyway. She didn't pay much attention to the panicked or amused reactions of the various minor nobles at the banquet. 

Yuzora swung his foot about, slamming her into the hard ground with a painful crack, but she did not loose her death grip on his ankle. He reached down to try to pry her off him, and although he was physically stronger than her, she had better leverage at the moment and he couldn't manage to get her off. 

"Damn you, Zannin, for insisting that all deadly weapons be left at the door," Yuzora complained. "And you considered all my enchanted goods to be deadly!" 

Zannin chuckled and said, "Would I be so remiss as to allow an enchanter free reign within my domain with all his toys?" 

Yuzora proceeded to grab a pair of wooden chopsticks from the table and proceeded to stab at her with them. Zannin only laughed all the more at that. Finally Yuzora managed to discourage her with a silver fork, poking several small holes in her arm until she finally let go. He irritably kicked at her, and she ducked behind Zannin's chair. "Vicious little vixen," he muttered as he bound his mangled, bleeding leg in a strip of cloth. 

Zannin patted Toriko on the head in praise, and passed down to her a turkey drumstick. "There now, you can bite the leg of this turkey instead of the other turkey," Zannin told her. 

"Zannin, I must protest," Yuzora said, not bothering to sit back down and return to his meal. "I did not agree to come here just to get maimed by your _pets_. We were supposed to be negotiating an agreement!" 

"I see no need to negotiate with someone as an equal who is incapable of defending himself against a mere pet," Zannin told him coldly. "Yuzora, you are a fool. If you believed that you would leave here alive and without having agreed to serve me, you are more deluded than I would have believed even you capable of. But to be quite frank, I don't need you." He snapped out an arm to grab Yuzora around the neck, and Toriko found his look of panic as Zannin's claws closed around his throat to be quite satisfying. "Your islands already have their own individual custodians, who I have no doubt will be as happy to pledge their loyalty to my empire as to yours." 

Yuzora's eyes turned toward the doors, but the guards wearing the uniforms of his empire had been disarmed and were being held at sword-point by Zannin's. "You will regret this betrayal, dog. The lords of the other islands will hear of this and they will learn never to trust you an inch. They will band against you and destroy you." 

"Perhaps," Zannin admitted lightly. "But none of that helps you here. I have half a mind to turn you into a nice stew for my pet instead." 

Toriko refrained from comment on that, shifting back into her human form and munching on the drumstick. She had wiped the blood off her chin, but there was still some taste of it in her mouth as she ate the meat. 

"So, what, you're just going to _kill_ me?" Yuzora practically shrieked. "You can't do that! I'm a great enchanter!" 

"Mm, are you offering me your services in exchange for sparing your life?" Zannin snarled, lifting the smaller brown-skinned man off the ground and dangling him two feet above the ground. "And what makes you think that I would trust anything you might create for me, or that I could not simply do the same myself if I were so inclined?" 

"I--I have many skills that you would doubtless find useful!" Yuzora said in a blind panic. "I'm sure you would not wish to waste all your time on things a servant could as easily do!" 

"I think you shall find it all the more ironic when I bind you in your own devices," Zannin said, taking his other paw and pulling a silver chain out of Yuzora's trousers. "And tell me, you accuse me of betrayal, but what did you intend with this little toy, hmm? Did you think that my inspections had simply overlooked it, what with your clever hiding place and all?" He tossed it aside onto the floor at Toriko's feet. "Bind his wrists with it, my darling pet." 

Toriko sat side the half-eaten turkey drumstick on the table and snatched up the silver chain, wincing a little at the touch of it. "As you wish, Master," she said quietly, although this particular command she had absolutely no objections to. To the sounds of Yuzora's protests, she stood up and took the chain and wrapped it tightly about his wrists, binding them together in a figure-eight. When she brought the ends of the chain together, there was a small flash of light, and suddenly there was only a solid ring of chain holding the man's wrists together. Once the chain was on him, Toriko sat down on the floor again. 

"I have to wonder how you intended to get that on me," Zannin growled, dropping the man heavily to the ground. "I had been interested in seeing if you would pull it out to try to deal with my pet, and although I am impressed at your ingenuity and self-control, I cannot allow those qualities to be used against me. Guards! Take him to the dungeon." 

A pair of armed guards approached and took Yuzora by the arms, still protesting futilely, and dragged him out of the banquet hall. Some of the guests applauded approvingly or gave cheers, while others were staring, almost horrified, their mouths agape. Toriko wondered just what that chain really did, but whatever it is, she didn't doubt that Yuzora was definitely not happy about his situation. 

"Rise and take a seat, my dear," Zannin said to her, gesturing toward the chair formerly occupied by Yuzora. "You have earned it."


	8. Love

Toriko woke slowly, purring up against the pillows languidly and not wanting to move just yet. It was comfortable in bed, and she had nothing to fear at the moment, she thought. She could find nothing to be displeased about in the events of the previous day, it having been the best day she had had since she had arrived here, all in all. She did not feel at all sorry about Yuzora's fate right now. 

Something he had said yesterday drifted back to the surface in her mind, however. He had said, "You shapeshifters." Zannin was a werewolf? An actual Garou? Toriko had initially presumed him to be one of the wolf-men descended from Albrynnia who had been created during the War of Transformation thousands of years ago. There weren't many of them around anymore, but there were still some populations of them surviving in the wilderness of Albrynnia and a few of the Sunrise Islands. But if he were really a Garou, she supposed he must just generally use his crinos form because it was more intimidating or something. 

She heard the door open and slowly poked her head out from under the covers over toward it, although her nose told her first that whoever it was seemed to be bringing something that smelled delicious. It was Makoto again, carrying a tray with a plate stacked up with pancakes smothered in maple syrup and worfberries, some strips of bacon, and a glass of lernade. 

"Mmm, Makoto," she murmured as she climbed out of bed. "That smells delicious." She was completely naked except for her collar, which drew a crooked grin from Makoto. 

"I'm sure it tastes even better," Makoto replied as she came over to take the tray and start eating hungrily. "One would think you'd not be quite so voracious after that feast last night." 

Toriko chuckled in amusement as she remembered, eating. "A fox needs a regular supply of sweets and tasty treats to keep her coat smooth and shiny," she replied lightly. 

"Does that apply to your skin as well?" Makoto asked with a grin, reaching over to trace a fingertip down her arm. 

"Sure," she replied, grinning back at him broadly. 

"You are such an easy distraction to me," he said, chuckling softly. "I do have duties to attend to. But I find myself rather spending time with you instead." 

Toriko said, "Well, if you have important things to do, don't let me keep you or anything." 

"They can wait," Makoto assured her, sitting down next to her and slipping an arm around her waist. 

Toriko smiled brightly and ate up her food. The pancakes were warm and fluffy, the bacon was crispy and tasty, and the juice was cold and tangy. "You're right, that was most delicious," she commented, leaning up to kiss him on the lips. 

Makoto ran his tongue along her lips and said, "You taste like maple syrup." 

She giggled softly in response. Their playful banter quickly turned into foreplay, resulting in Makoto pulling out of his clothing and romping about in the bed with her for some time. Their sex was gentle and playful, warm and loving. Toriko knew well enough that she was in love, and felt that he was also. He was never rough with her, nor cruel or forceful. They finally ended up laying there, naked and cuddling beneath the comfortable blankets, uncaring about the warm morning sunlight streaming in across the bed through the open curtains. 

"I love you," she whispered to him. 

Makoto smiled and looked at her with his gentle brown eyes, stroking her cheek lightly. "I think I might be starting to get there myself, against all better judgment," he replied quietly. "I don't really know for sure yet. You've certainly done to brighten up my life, my darling fox. I don't think any other woman has ever seen me the way you do." 

Toriko wrapped her arms around him and snuggled close, satisfied with his honesty. "I'm here for you," she said quietly. "For your sake. I may not like what Zannin does sometimes, but I won't leave you, I can't abandon you. I don't know why you insist on staying here yourself. You surely know what he's like, what sort of things he does?" 

"Like what?" Makoto asked. 

"Like the whole cannibalism thing," Toriko replied. "The idea of eating the flesh of sentient beings just makes me feel a little sick to my stomach." 

"Well," he said slowly. "If you want to get strictly technical, 'cannibalism' specifically refers to eating the flesh of a creature of your own species." 

Toriko snickered softly and said, "Oh, leave the dictionary out of this, you know what I meant." 

Makoto chuckled. "Well, it all depends, how do you define what is a sentient being? I know I've known some animals in my time who would have been insulted to be called anything other than intelligent beings, even if not in the same way as one might consider the likes of humans and elves. Sometimes probably more so in some cases, considering the depths of stupidity I've seen humans sink to from time to time." 

"I suppose so," she says. "But then when you kill an animal for food, aren't you supposed to give thanks to its spirit for providing that food?" 

"Have you given thanks to all the cattle, and fowl, and fish who have died for you?" he asked. 

"Well, no, I guess not, although I didn't kill them myself, I doubt the ones who did gave thanks to them either," she admitted. "But that's a bit beside the point. Generally predators aren't prey themselves. It would be something like eating wolf meat, or shark. I know some consider shark to be a delicacy, but sharks have no natural predators in their own habitat. It just seems a bit weird and unnatural to me. Though I'm not sure why it should, since animals will generally eat whatever they can kill that isn't poisonous to them. The top-level predators are generally just so because they're larger and stronger than the animals they prey upon." 

"The meat of carnivores does have a rather different flavor than that of herbivores," Makoto said. "But see, that's why I like you. You're smart. You don't just blindly go into the trap of things just being the way they are because society told you they're supposed to be that way. You actually bother to stop and think things through." 

Toriko chuckled softly and said, "Well, thinking on it logically, I suppose I can see reason for it. Eating the flesh of a predator sort of symbolically indicates that you were strong enough to kill that animal in the first place. And Zannin's a werewolf, which makes him a powerful predator himself, I suppose. Humans often set themselves above natural predators by preying upon animals that wouldn't normally be prey species in nature. So preying upon humans would then symbolically place him above _them_ at the top of the food chain." 

"You've got it," Makoto said with a broad grin, running his fingers through her hair. 

"You know," Toriko commented. "Why is it that we're laying naked in bed and talking about cannibalism, without some corny lines like 'Hey, baby, you can eat my sausage anytime you like'?" 

Makoto laughed aloud at that, and leaned over to kiss her. "Well, if you like, I can eat you... out." 

Toriko giggled at him. "You're so funny. That's one of the reasons why I love you. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I love you. You might say that's probably against my own better judgment too, but I can't deny it. I don't want to live without you." 

"It makes my heart sing to hear that." He held her close for a moment longer, allowing one more lingering kiss between them, before drawing back and muttering, "I've got some things to attend to now. You're free to roam the castle as you wish. Go ahead and take your tray down to the kitchen if you like, if you can remember how to get there." 

"Alright, my love, I'll do that," she said with a quiet smile, and they proceeded to clothe themselves again. Makoto flashed her another smile before heading off out the door and down the stairs, and shortly after, Toriko finished pulling on her leather and lace clothing and gathered up the tray with the empty plates to head down to where she remembered the kitchens as having been. 

Makoto was already gone by the time she was ready, so she just headed down to deposit the dirty dishes into the kitchen and went off to wander around the castle at a more relaxed pace than she'd been able to before. Now she wasn't constantly worried about being caught, or being forced to crawl around at Zannin's heels as he paraded her to one trial or another. The guards hardly gave her a second glance for the most part, being a bit more used to seeing her around by now. 

Although the castle was functional, it was not nearly so massive or grandiose as it might have been, as she might have expected from one of the self-important rulers of the larger islands. In contract, Zannin's castle was almost sparse in some places, lacking the ostentatious and lavish displays. Where another ruler might have had gold or gemstones, Zannin chose iron or silver. The paintings and tapestries there were primarily depicted scenes of violence and carnal pleasure, rather than being merely beautiful decorations. Things in general seemed to have a completely different flavor and feeling to them. 

Perhaps, she mused, he wasn't really so much worse than many of the other island lords. She had seen some of them and had been in a few of their palaces, and had to wonder how much of the island's economy had been put toward the regal trappings they surrounded themselves with while the towns under their rule lived in poverty. There was that much to be said that Zannin at least did not waste wealth upon plating everything in gold, even if she did not expect he was any kinder to those under his rule. Perhaps, in a way, it was a more honest way of approaching things. 

But in the end, it was her feelings for Makoto that her mind kept drifting back to. He might have a few odd ideas, but he seemed a decent enough person, certainly. She seriously doubted that he would still be working for Zannin, apparently willingly enough, if he were really such a terrible person as she might have originally feared. His methods might be harsh sometimes, after all, but were they really completely unjustified in some cases? And for that matter, really all that worse than others around the Sunrise Islands and the rest of the world? Surely not. 

As she walked by, her musings were interrupted by hearing a furtive conversation from a pair of guards standing watch, who did not seem to realize that she could hear them. "Hey, look, there's that kitsune, Toriko her name was, wasn't it?" 

"Yeah," the other said. "She's a mighty fine piece of meat, ain't she?" She pretended to casually examine a tapestry of a centaur being disembowelled as she listened to them speaking. 

"Don't even think about it. She belongs to Lord Zannin and you know it. He'd castrate us if we dared to touch her." 

"Yeah, I know, I know, but a man can dream, can't he? And she looks mighty sexy in that black leather outfit, too." 

"Get your mind out of the gutter and go back to guarding," muttered the other with an amused smirk. 

"Whatever, don't tell me you haven't been thinking the same thing from time to time, too. Especially after she walked past in her birthday suit that day, damn what a body!" 

The other guard merely rolled his eyes and didn't bother to dignify that with a response, turning back to his watch diligently. 

Toriko had to worry a bit about that. Would Zannin be angry if he found out about her relationship with Makoto? She certainly didn't want to bring any retribution down upon her lover over it. She cared too much about him even already to allow any ill to befall him because of her. But she belonged to Zannin, they had said, and he did seem an awfully possessive type, especially judging by his reaction over Yuzora. Of course, Yuzora was a creep anyway. 

Well, it was time enough to seek him out and see if she couldn't find something to do about it that would ensure Makoto's safety. She had never willingly sought out Zannin before, but now she found herself politely inquiring to servants as to where he might be, and she was directed toward the dungeons where Yuzora was being held. What would she do for love? She wondered to herself as she made her way down the corridors leading toward the dungeons. She had also definitely never thought she would voluntarily return there either after she had been moved to the tower. 

Perhaps she was willing to do more for him than she wanted to admit even to herself just yet.


	9. Lust

Toriko came down into the dungeon, following screams that she could hear from the torture chamber off the main corridor to the left. She stopped in the entrance to the torture chamber to look inside, and saw Zannin standing before Yuzora, who was dangling by his feet from the ceiling, his arms hanging down but too far to touch the floor. Toriko had never considered herself a bad person or anything, but nevertheless she found it difficult to feel sorry for him considering what he had intended to do to her. 

"You thought you could betray me," Zannin was saying to him. "You will learn quickly enough that that is a very bad idea." He lifted a red-hot branding iron with the kanji for Zannin's name and held it up for Yuzora's panicked inspection. "Remember, Yuzora. You are mine now. You would do well not to forget that." 

Zannin pulled at Yuzora's clothing to expose the flesh of his buttocks, and pressed the magical branding iron against his skin. Yuzora let out a bloodcurdling scream and tried to squirm, but the wolf-man was holding him firmly in place against the implement. After a few moments of that, Zannin pulled the item away, leaving a distinct mark embedded in Yuzora's skin, and set the branding iron aside. Although the head glowed as though it were red-hot, it did not actually appear to really be hot at all, and didn't harm the wooden table he had laid it on. 

The werewolf turned and saw Toriko standing there, watching passively. "Ah, my dear Toriko," he said. "Have you been here long? Enjoyed our little show here?" He grinned toothily. 

Yuzora grimaced a bit and looked over toward her, and put in, "I think your little pet is a bit squeamish about torture. Do you think you should do this in front of her? She might get sick to her stomach!" 

Toriko gave a smirk, and said, "I daresay I can't complain. Although I'm a bit surprised that you have not yet cut out his tongue. May I please smack him, Master?" 

Zannin chuckled lightly and gave a grin, and said, "You may." 

She inclined her head toward him and walked over to where Yuzora was hanging, and gave him a hard smack across the face. Yuzora winced and swung back a little on his chains for a moment. "You'd best shut up before you drive me to showing you just how not-squeamish I can be," she snarled at him, then turned to Zannin again, who was positively beaming, pleased as could be. 

"Come, my dear," Zannin said. "Let us leave this scum to think about his actions for a bit." He gestured to her and led the way back up the stairs and out of the dungeons, and Toriko followed him with hardly a second glance back toward the glaring and unhappy Yuzora. They came back up into the corridors of the castle proper and he walked off down one of them seemingly at random. 

"I don't like him," Toriko commented. "He's a miserable excuse for a human being." 

Zannin gave a chuckle and said, "He does not really tend to endear himself to people, now does he? But I doubt you came down to the dungeons to see him, or did you?" 

"No," Toriko replied. "I came looking for you." 

"Mmm, did you now?" Zannin said, casting a grin aside at her. "And what did you wish to tell me then, hmm?" 

Toriko took in a deep breath. It was difficult to even think about given all she had seen, but... There were always choices. "I wished to tell you that... I'm willing to do whatever you ask of me. Without fear or threat of reprisal." 

"And what brought on this change of heart, hmm?" Zannin asked. "Do I have that fool Yuzora to thank for that, too?" 

"Well, I wouldn't exactly _thank_ him. I can think of plenty of much more suitable things to do with him," she replies with a smirk. "Besides that and that I've had plenty of time to think things over of late, and all." 

"I'm glad to hear it," Zannin replied, opening up a door and heading into a room she recognized as having been in before. It was the room where he had whipped her after she had tried to escape the second time. Toriko stepped into the room hesitantly, wondering just what he intended here. "Now, I promised you rewards for your cooperation and obedience. It's time to show you just what pleasures I can really offer you." 

"What are you going to do?" Toriko wondered. Her heart was racing, but she wasn't nearly as afraid as she had been before. Surely he wouldn't do anything too terrible to her when she had just agreed to serve him willingly. 

"I'm going to introduce you to your own pleasures," Zannin said. "Beyond that which you might have ever dreamed of." He reached over and ran his paws down her back and arms, then turned away and said, "Remove your clothing." He busied himself looking through some of the various items he had arrayed in the room. 

That didn't sound so bad, Toriko thought as she began to pull off her leather and lace clothes. Certainly better than torture at any rate. When she put her clothes aside and stood naked before him, he looked at her hungrily, with lust-filled brown eyes. She was distinctly reminded of the sort of look that Makoto sometimes gave her. She looked away, trying to put that thought of her mind. If Zannin was satisfied, maybe he wouldn't find out about Makoto, she thought to herself. 

"Such a lovely form," Zannin murmured, reaching over to trace his paws along her body again, his claws scratching lightly at her skin and leaving only the smallest hints of blood behind. "And you are mine," he said softly. 

Toriko was scared, and that only seemed to turn Zannin on all the more. "Yes, I'm yours," she agreed reluctantly, sighing a bit. 

"Do not fret, my dear," he said to her. "I will bring no real harm to you." His hand cupped her breast and squeezed a bit. 

She wasn't too sure that she wanted to trust him with that, but the choices before her were clear enough. She could either resist him and refuse him, possibly angering him and knocking her down to where she had been before. Or she could just go along with what he clearly wanted and enjoy herself. In that light, it was pretty clear to see what the better option was, and she relaxed a bit and looked up at him with a small smile. 

Zannin grinned at her and lifted her up lightly and lay her across the table. He ran his paw up her inner thigh, sliding his hand up to tease her slit with one claw, then to her clit. His claw was sharp and cut at her flesh a bit, but nevertheless it felt good, the pleasure and pain twined together. Toriko could not believe she was doing this or that she had agreed to this, and yet here she was regardless, where she had never imagined she would be willingly back when she had first arrived in this castle, how long ago was it? Weeks ago? Perhaps even months? 

The Garou pulled out a large dildo and showed it to her, rubbing it across the outside of her slit with a grin. The metal was cold against her hot flesh, but at least it wasn't silver, so while it felt interesting, it wasn't exactly painful. Zannin proceeded to slide it up into her body, working it in her and teasing her clit some more with his claws. "You like this, don't you," he practically purred at her. 

"Yes, Master," she murmured, letting her eyes slide shut and just enjoying the feeling for the moment. "I like it." 

"I have a number of very entertaining implements I would love to introduce you to, as well," he cooed. "But not today. Time enough for that later, hmm?" 

He pulled the dildo out of her and she opened her eyes again, finding herself looking at him poised above her, his large cock erect and waiting eagerly for her body. She had to wonder just how that thing was going to even fit in her. Makoto's had been big enough to almost be uncomfortable himself, but this? This was certainly going to hurt like hell. But at least she would regenerate any damage it caused, she figured. 

"You want this, hmm?" he said, rubbing his cock along her crotch. 

"Yes," she found herself whispering. 

Zannin only grinned and proceeded to slowly push himself into her. There was pain, there was blood, but there was also pleasure. Zannin made sure of that. She was blinded to everything but the feeling of the moment. The blood and pain he was causing only seemed to excite him further. Toriko found herself crying aloud, although whether it was in pain or orgasm, or both, she wasn't entirely certain. She didn't feel any love involved here, only a pure, carnal lust. And for all the pain and blood, she could not deny that she enjoyed it. 

When her senses began to clear and she drifted back to reality, she opened her eyes to see Zannin standing over her, touching her with a softly glowing paw. The pain was ebbing bit by bit as he worked healing magic upon her. No real harm, he had said, and between his healing powers and her own regenerative abilities, whatever harm he might have done was nullified. But why had she enjoyed such brutality so? She had never exactly considered herself a masochist. Had he done something else to her, she wondered? 

Zannin reached over and put a paw on her forehead and grinned down at her. "With each breath you become all the more mine," he whispered. "I do hope you enjoyed that, my dear. But the tip of the iceberg of all the pleasures that are open to you." 

"I don't know how I could have, but I did," she admitted reluctantly. Some part of her felt ashamed of herself for not only going through with this, willingly even, but for enjoying it as well. She had to wonder what Makoto would think of her if he found out about this. 

Zannin lifted her up lightly and cradled her in his arms, his thick, gray fur pressed against her naked skin. Toriko sighed and put her arms around him, closing her eyes and burying her face in his shoulder. He might seem like such a brutal monster sometimes, but there were other times when he could be surprisingly gentle and kind. It was all very confusing to her, and she wasn't entirely sure just what to think of it all. Was he really so much a beast as she had originally assumed? Or perhaps the world was not really so black and white, and he, too, had his human side. 

Finally he went to put her down again and gestured toward her clothing, absently putting away some of his implements slowly, looking over them a bit with some interest as he did so and glancing aside to her. She went and quietly pulled on her clothes again, her thoughts still haunted by a million threads that ran through her mind, tangling up with one another and leading to no clear pattern or resolution. Toriko didn't really know what he was doing to her, or where that would ultimately lead. 

But there were always choices, she thought as she looked up at him once she was clothed again, remembering Makoto's words to her. Sometimes, she thought, the right choice wasn't always the obvious one. And her mother had always told her that there was sometimes a world of difference between the right choice and the easy one. Had she been following the easy path here, without regard to whether it was right or not? Did it really even matter? Her mother had also told her that life was far too serious to be taken seriously. 

Sighing softly to herself and shaking her head, she turned and left the chamber and headed back toward her tower to where she might think some more. She went out to stand on the balcony and stare off at the evening sky, and wondered just where she was going, and what she was going to do. And what it all might ultimately mean to her. 

"Time enough to see," she murmured, the wind twisting at her dark hair. At the current rate she was going right now, she felt that she would gain his trust enough for him to remove the collar soon enough, and then? She didn't know. It didn't even really bother her much anymore. One day at a time, she thought. She just had to wait for the right opportunity. If it even proved to be necessary. She'd feel better about it all if she knew what had happened to her friends. Perhaps she would meet up with them again someday, if they were still alive. 

In the distance, along the horizon, she thought she spotted something. Were her eyes playing tricks on her, or was it an army? She thought she saw countless moving figures like ants pouring up from the coast and heading straight toward the castle. Perhaps, she thought ruefully, the point of all her musings was about to make a sharp change.


	10. The Siege

The army reached the castle at noon of the next day. They bore several different banners, perhaps indicating an alliance of multiple islands which had banded together against Zannin's tyranny. Most prominent among them was a banner depicting a white star on a field of blue. The first thing they did was set wizards around the castle to surround it in some sort of wards, perhaps to prevent anyone from easily escaping by magical means. 

Toriko didn't see Makoto come that morning, and presumed that he was busy taking care of martial needs what with the siege on. She went down to the kitchens herself to get something small to eat. 

"They may try to starve us out," one of the cooks was saying. "I don't like it, but what can you do?" 

Another one added, "If they do, you can bet we're all going to be having to learn to like the taste of human flesh, as Lord Zannin will off us all one by one to make sure we have enough to eat." 

"I'm not even sure just who all is attacking us," one of the guards commented. "Or for that matter, why." 

Toriko thought to herself that she might want to take advantage of this distraction in order to try to escape, if she could get past the mages' wards. But that wouldn't help with the enchantment on the collar she wore, and even so she would not leave Makoto behind. She wondered where he was, and if he was alright. 

"The people of Takira are leading them, that much is for sure," said a gruff, bearded guard. 

"Yeah, that much is obvious, judging by the flags," replied another. "But why?" 

"Bah, probably just trying to annex the island or something," said the bearded guard. "They're always trying to do something like that. Takira thinks they're supposed to run the whole of the Sunrise Islands, call their oh-so-great city the capital and all, and every once in a while they decide to go throw their weight around to get people into line. Bullshit if you ask me, but there's the breaks." 

When she'd finished up eating and went out into the corridors, she ran into Zannin again, almost literally. "Toriko," he said to her quickly. "I want you to go kill Yuzora so that he can't break free." 

"Yes, my lord," she replied, and he was off again as the words were hardly out of her mouth. She headed off toward the dungeon, not even stopping to think too hard about what he wanted her to do. A month ago, she might have been horrified at the idea of committing murder for someone, but right now, it seemed a perfectly reasonable and necessary request. Not to mention that Yuzora was a bastard who deserved to die anyway. 

She found him still hanging upside down from the ceiling where he had been left the day before. He was in something of a daze, half-conscious, but his eyes snapped open to look over to her when he heard the door open to allow her entry. "So, the little fox has come to visit me? Where's your master now, slave?" 

"I still do not like you," she told him sharply, going over to the table along the side of the torture chamber where the various knives and other implements were arrayed. 

"So what're you going to do, huh? Did your master loosen up your leash a bit? Did he send you down here to deal with me because he was too chicken to do it himself? It's funny to see you yapping at his heels, eating out of his hands, you know that?" 

Toriko selected the nastiest looking knife of the bunch, a slightly curved single-edged blade made out of a strange reddish-yellow material that looked charred and burnt in places. When she touched it, she seemed to sense and almost palpable feeling of darkness and bloodthirst. She brought it over to him and waved it in front of his face, and said, "Tell me, Yuzora. What is this? What's it made out of?" 

"Demonsteel," Yuzora replied, his eyes narrowing at her. 

"Hmm," Toriko said, looking it over thoughtfully. "What does it do?" 

"Hurts like hell and keeps hurting," Yuzora said. "Even shapeshifters like you will heal demonsteel wounds more slowly than normal, though it's not as effective as silver in some ways. With mensch, it'll just make them slowly get sick and die eventually, in a lot of cases. Why, what are you planning on..." He stared at her as she brought up the knife to his nose. 

"So tell me, Yuzora," Toriko said. "Do you want to die slowly, or quickly?" 

"W-What?" Yuzora stuttered. "Your master would surely be angry if you did away with his toy. I'm sure he wanted to keep me around for his own entertainment and further use." 

"I'll do what I want, and all the begging and pleading in the world you could give me won't stop me," she replied. "Now. I don't like you. Tell me again. Do you want to die slowly..." She cut off the tip of his nose, causing him to cry out in pain for a moment. "... or quickly?" 

"You fucking little vixen!" he snapped back at her, then noticed the look on her face and said, "Wait, what, are you serious? You can't be serious, Zannin would never allow..." 

She viciously slashed the demonsteel knife across his cheek, and he cried out again, an angry, red cut left behind which blood began to run out of. "You'd be surprised," she told him. "Don't count on Lord Zannin to come save you. He wants you dead, and I'm perfectly happy to comply." 

"What?" he replied. "I thought kitsune were supposed to be these pranksters that are all cheerful and I've never heard of a vicious, evil, murderous kitsune before..." 

"I have no idea where you're getting your myths," she said with a smirk, "but I can assure you that it would be rather difficult for an entire race to be always cheerful all the time." She sliced the knife across his other cheek, coaxing another scream from him. "Especially when someone, like you, decides to piss me off." 

Yuzora thrashed about wildly, trying to get loose in a frantic panic as he realized that she was serious about killing him. "No! Let me go! I'll be your loyal enchanter! I'll do whatever you want! Don't kill me please!" 

"You change your tune awfully quickly," she commented, reaching up and leaving a long gash halfway down his leg with her knife, bleeding and soaking his trousers in red. "And what would you really do? Betray me at the soonest opportunity? Backstab me? Join up with the next person that threatened to kill you too? No, I'm afraid you won't get the chance to try anything like that ever again." 

Yuzora proceeded to scream and yell at her, swearing hoarsely and flailing about ineffectually as she cut him again and again with the demonsteel knife, the blood running out of his many wounds and thoroughly soaking his clothing and dripping down onto the floor below, which was already speckled with similar stains that might indicate this was hardly the first time something of this nature was done here. 

When her passion finally cooled, she looked to the dangling body and realized he was dead, and she wasn't sure if he'd died from blood loss or if she'd stuck something important, nor how long he'd been dead and she'd still kept slicing at his flesh. She stared at the corpse for several long moments before turning around to see Makoto standing in the doorway of the torture chamber, holding a bundle under one arm and wearing civilian clothes rather than his usual guard uniform. He had a silver crescent moon pendant hanging around his neck. 

"Makoto," she said to him, setting aside the bloody knife onto the table again. "I didn't hear you come in. Did I leave the dungeon door open? How long have you been standing there?" 

"Long enough," he replied with something of an amused smirk. "Come on, get yourself changed, we're going to get out of here." He tossed the bundle over to her, and she saw that there were clothes and a large travelling pack. 

"They haven't gotten inside yet, have they?" Toriko wondered as she changed into the travelling clothes. She'd gotten somewhat used to the skimpy black leather, and it felt a little strange putting on the trousers and tunic instead. 

"Not yet," Makoto replied, helping he with her clothes a bit and shoving the leather outfit into the pack. The weatherproof cloak was suitable for concealing her collar as well, although she did have to wonder if they'd manage to get away from Zannin without it going off, or if he'd be killed when the castle was breached. 

"How's it looking out there?" she asked, taking the pack and taking a glance inside. Besides her other clothes, there were rations, a length of rope, a canteen of water, and some other miscellaneous supplies. 

"Not good," he admitted. "There are far more of them than there are of us in here, and they have supply routes completely cut off, while maintaining their own supplies from the surrounding countryside. They seem to have managed to take over and overwhelm this island in a swift attack." 

"So what are we going to do?" she asked, pulling the pack over her back. 

"We're leaving," he said, heading for the door. 

"How are we going to get out of here?" Toriko wondered, raising an eyebrow as she followed him out into the corridor. "Don't they have escape routes blocked off? I thought I saw them put wards up around the castle." 

"Not all," he explained. "And the wards only prevent magical escape. Any good castle has escape tunnels, though. We just have to take one of them and hope that they don't know about it. They aren't from this part of the Sunrise Islands, though, so I'll hope they haven't stumbled upon it by chance." 

"What about Zannin?" she asked. 

"Don't worry," he replied. "Follow me." He headed out through the corridors, leading her along down into a wine cellar underneath the kitchens. The back of the cellar was rather dusty, and shoving aside one shelf revealed the tunnel he had mentioned, leading off into darkness. Toriko summoned a globe of light to illuminate the passage, and Makoto slid the shelf back into place to conceal the passage behind them before they headed off down through the tunnel and away from the castle. 

"Where does this lead?" Toriko asked quietly as they strode purposefully down the passageway. 

"It comes out down in the valley by the lake," he replied. "Rather like the sewers except less damp, different spot though, further up the slope and to the east of there." 

After a stretch of uncomfortable silence, Toriko, haunted by her thoughts, said, "Makoto..." 

"Hmm?" he replied, turning to glance over toward her. 

"Yesterday, I..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "No, never mind, it's not important I guess." 

Makoto reached over and put an arm around her waist. "Don't worry, my dear," he told her reassuringly. 

They travelled down through the tunnels for some while, passing by some side tunnels which Makoto explained led off toward the sewers, catacombs, and secret chambers. If this way out was blocked, he said, they would need to try coming out through one of those. It was late evening and the sun was just slipping over the horizon when they reached the mouth of the tunnel, and Toriko extinguished her magic lamp so that the invaders would not spot the light. 

Makoto peered out and looked about the forested valley. "Looks like we're in the clear," he said quietly back to her, gesturing her out after him. "Let's get away from here." 

Quietly they headed off down through the foliage, and Toriko briefly considered that fox form would be more appropriate for the setting and allow them better stealth through the wilderness, but that wouldn't help Makoto. Soon enough, though, they came to the village which Toriko had visited before in her previous botched escape attempt, and remembering that, she noticed with a thoughtful frown that the collar did not seem to be bothering her this time. Perhaps that was an indication that Zannin was really dead. 

Takira troops were stationed in a watch around the village, and a watchman spotted them as they approached and ordered, "Halt! State your names and purpose here. Why are you travelling at night?" 

"My name is Makoto, and this is my wife, Toriko," he replied. "We had to get away from the castle so as not to get caught in the crossfire inadvertently. My wife here is pregnant, you see, and I would hate to see anything happen to our first child." 

After a cursory inspection, the tired watchmen reluctantly allowed the two of them into the village, not even bothering to point them in the direction of the nearest inn. Makoto was familiar enough with the place and led them over there where he booked them a room for the night. Toriko, weary from their journey, gratefully curled up in Makoto's arms in their bed and was asleep almost immediately. At last, were her last thoughts before going to sleep, perhaps they had finally won their freedom from Zannin's bloody clutches.


	11. The Village

The sun was high in the sky by the time they woke the next morning after the long night they had had of travel. Toriko lay there a bit longer before climbing to her feet, not wanting to move from Makoto's strong grasp. Makoto stirred and stretched, leaning over to kiss her before the two of them proceeded to dress quietly. 

"Let's see about heading downstairs and getting some breakfast, shall we?" Makoto suggested, then glanced out the window and amended that, "Or lunch, as the case may be." 

"Sounds good to me," she said, and they descended the staircase and went down to the common room to get some bowls of rice with chicken and vegetables. 

While she ate, Toriko overheard some people discussing recent events, off-duty Takira soldiers by the looks of them. "Hear the news down from the castle?" one of them said. 

"Nothing since we got here. What's going on up there?" 

"What, were you sleeping under a rock last night? Yeah, Coalition troops broke in, slaughtered most of the people inside who didn't surrender. But they couldn't find any sign of the wolf-man. The mages think he must have escaped somehow, but they're not sure how. General Haruki is furious about it. He ordered a search of the whole island and closed down the ports." 

Makoto nudged Toriko, who blinked for a moment, finding herself sitting there with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth. "Something on your mind? You seem a bit distracted," he asked her quietly. 

"Lord Zannin is still alive," she mumbled furtively. "But if I'm all the way out here without the collar activating, he must be somewhere nearby..." Clearly not in his wolf-man form, but as she didn't know what his human form looked like, he could be any of the random patrons in the room. She glanced about the room for a moment as if hoping to spot him. 

"Probably best not to talk about this here," Makoto warned her softly, and she nodded in agreement, returning to her meal quietly. "So, my darling wife," he went on, in a bit louder voice, "Have you thought about possible names for our son yet?" 

She figured she may as well go along with the story he had given the guards for the benefit of anyone listening. "Oh, I don't know. I was thinking maybe something like Kamin, or Kiyoshi." 

"Hmm," Makoto replied. "I rather like Kamin myself. I wonder, is it too early to even be thinking about it? I mean, you're not even showing yet." 

Toriko chuckled softly in amusement. A good deal too early, she thought, considering she wasn't even pregnant yet, so far as she knew at any rate. "Never too early," she replied lightly, grinning aside to him. 

They finished up eating shortly enough and Makoto went to head back up to their room again, and Toriko followed behind him. He went over and leaned against the end of the bed and said to her, "So what was it exactly you were going to tell me yesterday?" 

"I..." Toriko began, trailing off again and flushing in embarrassment. 

Makoto reached over and touched her cheek reassuringly. "Fear not, my dear. You can tell me." 

"I had sex with Zannin," she replied quietly. "I was afraid he might... do something to you if he found out we were together. I didn't want anything to happen to you." 

He just wrapped his arms around her and held her close, murmuring, "Don't worry, my darling. Why would I hate you for that?" 

"Because," she said softly, burying her face in his shoulder. "Because I would do anything for him. Because I know that I belong to him and not to you." 

Makoto pulled away and looked at her with his deep brown eyes, but this time there was a strangely possessive and pleased expression on his face. "That's where you're wrong, my dear." 

"What do you mean?" she breathed, looking into his eyes... Zannin's eyes. "You..." 

Toriko watched wide-eyed as his body sprouted fur, shifted and grew larger and more wolf-like. "Yes, my dear Toriko," Zannin said with a grin. "You belong to me." 

"Lord Zannin..." was all that she managed to get out in hardly more than a whisper, her voice choked and her mind whirling. If Makoto was really Zannin... she had no idea what to think about that. She continued to stare at him in stunned silence as his fur retracted and his form shrank back into human form again. 

"Do not fret, my dear," he said to her quietly, brushing the back of his hand against her face. "I will bring you no ill if I can possibly help it." 

"But all those things you said to me..." Toriko murmured, her gaze fixed upon his eyes, Zannin's eyes. 

"They were all true," he replied. "Even my name, you see. Makoto was my birth name. I only took the name Zannin when I rose to power on this island. Call me what you wish, although I'd generally advise not calling me Zannin around the Takirans who want to kill me. Unless, of course, you really wish me dead after I deceived you in a way." 

Toriko sat down on the bed heavily, staring off into space in shock. "I don't know what to say," she whispered. "No, I don't want you killed, of course not!" She swallowed hard. 

He sat down next to her and put an arm around her waist. "Take your time, my dear. We're safe for the moment and in no rush. That's one reason, you see, why I really wanted Yuzora killed. He was one of the few people who could have told them that I am really a Garou. They'll be looking all over for a wolf-man and not finding one. And you did admirably on that, by the way." 

"I committed murder for you," she whispered. "And didn't just kill him, but made him suffer before he finally died." 

"Can you deny that he deserved it, though?" 

"He deserved it," Toriko replied in quiet agreement. "Makoto, Zannin, I..." 

He squeezed her gently and said softly, "How do you really feel about me?" 

Toriko paused for a moment and looked into her heart as she puzzled the question over. But in spite of how he had misled her and deceived her, even if he hadn't outright lied to her, there was only one true answer that came to mind. "I love you," she whispered, sighing loudly as she climbed to her feet and moved to kneel at his feet. "And I would do absolutely anything for you." 

She hated to admit how he had won precisely what he had wanted in the first place, tangling up her mind and her heart in elaborate knots of his own making, but she could not deny it. "I'm glad to hear that," he said quietly, tracing his fingertips down the side of her face and neck, and down to the collar he had put there himself. He reached around and undid the buckle and removed it, pulling it away and setting it aside. "No need for that anymore, I think." 

Toriko looked up at him in something of surprise. "My lord?" she asked. 

"I think you know well enough by now who your master is without need for the constant reminder of it," he said quietly. "Nor to call me such in public. Best that we do not draw attention to ourselves before this blows over. They must stop searching for me eventually. If need be, they cannot defend every stretch of coastline. We can find or build a boat and sail to one of the nearby islands." 

He reached down and pulled her up into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close, nuzzling her neck sensually. She sighed contentedly and snuggled up in his arms, purring softly and just letting herself go for now. All afternoon they held one another and made love and sex, gentle and rough, soft and hard, playful and intense. The world could wait for a little while. For the moment it was just her and the one she loved. 

The sun was setting again outside by the time they reluctantly crawled out of bed and got dressed again to head downstairs for some dinner. On the way to the common room, however, they were intercepted by a squadron of soldiers wearing Takiran colors. "Halt!" said their leader. "You two came down from Zannin's castle, is that correct?" 

"Yes, that is so," Makoto replied cordially. "Is there a problem, sir?" 

"I need you to come with me," the captain told them. "Just to answer some questions. You're not being accused of anything just yet. We just need whatever information we can get to find Zannin." 

"Alright," Makoto said with a nod. "We'll be happy to cooperate. Lead the way." 

The Takiran captain, satisfied, led them off to a small building on the edge of the village which the invaders were using. They were directed off into separate rooms, and Toriko found herself sitting in a wooden chair alone in a small room for a few minutes before another uniformed man came in. 

"Hello," the man said, giving her a forced smile. "I hope you don't mind answering a few questions, madam." 

"No, not at all," she replied. Whatever Makoto's apparent ease with the situation, she was still a little nervous about it. 

"First off, what is your name?" 

"The name I currently go by is Toriko," she replied. "The other name I most recently went by was Kishou." 

"I see," he said. "Why were you in Zannin's castle?" 

"I was a prisoner," she told him. "I was captured during an attack on the town of Kanson some weeks back." 

"How did you escape?" 

"While I was there, I befriended and fell in love with one of the guards at the castle, Makoto, the man who was with me. He helped me escape through some tunnels underneath the castle when it came under siege." 

"What did Zannin do to you while you were there?" 

Toriko sighed and replied quietly, "Starved me. Flogged me. Raped me." 

"Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" 

"I don't know. Maybe he escaped the same way we did. There were a lot of tunnels winding around down there coming out in different places. But if he did, he could be anywhere on the island by now." 

The man seemed satisfied with her answers, and he nodded to her and said, "Very well. You may go now. Thank you for your cooperation." 

Toriko nodded and inclined her head toward him, then headed out of the room to wait outside the building until they were done questioning Makoto. They kept him for a good deal longer than her, and she began to grow worried about him, but her fears were dispelled when he came striding out free again. She smiled over at him and went over to give him a hug and a kiss. 

He leaned over and murmured into her ear, "Let's head back to the inn and get dinner now. We'll leave tomorrow." 

They headed over toward the inn again and settled in with a thick, hearty soup and some sandwiches for dinner. The food was delicious and Toriko felt more at ease, thinking they'd really gotten away this time, and had eluded those who would bring them harm by slipping right under their noses. As they ate, Makoto rambled on idle conversation about the weather and how lovely the island was this time of year, and speculating just when their child would be born. Toriko continued to muse to herself and respond absently, wondering to herself if he really seemed to want a child or was just continuing to play up the ruse. She didn't say anything about it, however. Especially not in public. 

When they finished eating, they headed back upstairs to their room again, and Toriko gratefully curled up in bed, and Makoto slid in behind her and wrapped his arms around her protectively and possessively. She did not, however, immediately go to sleep. There were other things on her mind that she could finally ask him safely. 

"What did they ask you, anyway? They kept you a lot longer than me," Toriko wondered quietly. 

"Just a bunch of random questions about my time as a guard, my loyalties toward Zannin, my relationship with you, how and why we'd escaped, and such," Makoto replied. "I hope they didn't have a Truthseeker, though, as I'm sure at least some of my answers would have come up as clearly deceptive. Hence why I want to get away from here before they think too hard about it, but leaving in the middle of the night would have aroused even more suspicion. How did your session go?" 

"I told them nothing but the truth, I just omitted some of the little details they didn't need to know," she told him lightly. "They seemed pretty convinced that I couldn't tell them anything more." 

Makoto squeezed her and said, "If you'd told them the whole truth, they would have surely killed me, with no consequence to yourself. You would have been free of me again." 

"Who says that I would wish to be?" Toriko replied with a grin, leaning contentedly back against him. "And if they didn't have a Truthseeker, I have to question whether they'd even have believed me or not or have thought me merely mad. But no. I have no desire to bring harm to you, Master." 

He seemed most pleased to hear that, and held her close as they drifted slowly off into a restful sleep.


	12. Politics

They woke the next morning and gathered up their belongings, what little they had of them at least, and set off away from the village and into the forest. Toriko was grateful to be away from there and into the wilderness again, her senses happily taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of freedom. So what if some might not consider it freedom? She had willfully chosen to protect her Master rather than reveal the truth about him to those who would bring him harm. She might have been initially imprisoned, enslaved, and forced into things against her will, but now it was entirely a matter of choice, and she had certainly made her choice. 

And in the end, she had found the real man behind the werewolf to be not so harsh and cruel as Zannin's inhuman mask, nor as weak and insipid as Makoto might have sometimes come across as. There was surely Zannin's strength and dominant nature, married perfectly with Makoto's warmth and gentle caring. She didn't know how such apparently contradictory things could be reconciled, but in the end she could not deny that she loved him for what he was, and not for what she had believed him to be before. Perhaps she had realized there was something up with it all sooner, but had not really been willing to admit it to herself just yet. 

"I'm afraid that the Takirans have probably won over those who served me before," Makoto said quietly. "We won't be getting any assistance from the lordlings of the island, whether they knew who I really am or not. More likely they'd just turn me in for some reward from Takira, I think." 

"I wonder if my friends are still alive..." Toriko murmured thoughtfully. "Do you know if they were killed in the attack on Kanson?" 

"Who would those be?" Makoto wondered. 

"Male elf by the name of Hellath, blond hair, plays the heledhar. Female human called Sanzoku, dresses up like a pirate and talks funny. Female mermaid named Iruka, spends most of her time in human form though, silver-colored hair." 

"I don't recall seeing any reports about anyone matching those descriptions of having been killed," he replied pensively. "Definitely would have stood out from the usual villagers, as well. They might well have escaped. This pirate woman, does she have a ship, then?" 

Toriko gave a nod. "Yeah. Not a particularly big one, but it's her pride and joy. We sailed all around the Sunrise Islands in that thing, and along the Albrynnian coast as well. If we could find them, they would doubtless help us." 

"Question, of course, being if they're even still on this island or not," Makoto commented dryly. "I'd have surely noticed if anyone like that were trying to find you, so perhaps they presumed you dead and moved on to another island." 

"Maybe we'll get lucky and run across them or something," Toriko said, shrugging. "Otherwise, well, I suppose we're on our own. Why do the Takirans want your head so badly, anyway?" 

"Nothing personal, I'm sure," he replied. "They're imperialist sorts that probably saw me as a threat to their continued nominal 'rule' of the Sunrise Islands. They'll probably be content enough in disrupting my fledgling empire and go home soon enough, anyway. They don't have nearly the force necessary to actually hold the Sunrise Islands, just to send in and smack up anyone who gets notions of independence." 

"I never heard anything like that before," Toriko replied. "Aside from the fact that most people didn't really take the rule of Takira very seriously anyway." 

"You weren't trying to start your own empire and take over the Sunrise Islands for your own rule, either," Makoto countered. "That sort of thing is dangerous to them. They're afraid of losing what power they do have, whether anyone really listens to them or not. Never mind that the 'Emperor' is a joke and the entire Imperial family is so inbred that I'm surprised they aren't coming out deformed. It's stupidity, I say. I think if I'm going to actually succeed in setting myself as ruler of the Sunrise Islands, I'll have to go to Takira myself and eliminate the Imperial family." 

Toriko looked at him with some surprise at how casually he was discussing treason and assassination. It wasn't like she had held any particular loyalty to them herself, though. "That might be a bit difficult I would think," she just commented. 

"It would certainly be quite the trick to pull off," Makoto said. "But it could be done. It'll just take a good deal of creativity and a little bit of luck." 

"Why would you want to rule the Sunrise Islands, anyway?" 

"Someone needs to exert their dominance over it who really deserves the position," he replied. "Someone who can get this place in shape and not just keep holding on relentlessly by the tips of their fingers. There needs to be change, or the world will surely stagnate. And how long has the Imperial family held power, passing it along to one undeserving child or another generation after generation?" 

"Do you think the Lezarian Council is ignoring this little part of the world, then?" she wondered, raising an eyebrow. 

"The Lezarian Council barely knows what's really going on outside of Zarhanna," Makoto said. "And that's on the other side of the planet from here." 

"But aren't the representatives to the council elected democratically?" Toriko said. "Wouldn't that seem to indicate that the people would vote for someone to represent them who would have their best interests in mind?" 

"The representatives don't have any real power," he asserted. "And most people don't have any real clue about politics, nor do they really care so long as their own mundane existences continue without undue interruption. They just end up voting for who they are told to without any thought as to whether that person would really be best for them or not. Most people are merely mindless sheep who need a strong hand to lead them. The people who really care about what's going on in the world should not allow the heedless masses to drown out their voices." 

"I suppose you're right," she reluctantly admitted. She would like to believe that democracy really worked, but the harsh reality of the situation was that whatever the ideal of it, it didn't really work so well here. Society was hardly terrible and oppressive or anything that it might have been, though. Then she smirked over at him and added, "But I somehow doubt that you would want to style yourself as Emperor solely for the good of the Sunrise Islands." 

He chuckled in some amusement. "Not really, no," he replied. "I would not dare challenge the Council outright just yet, but I could gain control of this part of the world. The representatives themselves may not have much real power, but the Council does. Perhaps I could back you as a new representative at the next election." 

"What, me?" Toriko said with some surprise. "I've never really held any interest in politics, myself." 

"No, but you would hold to my interests, would you not?" he replied, grinning at her. "You would do it for me if I asked it of you? You did say you would do anything for me, did you not?" 

"I would," she said quietly. "But why me, and not just try for the position yourself?" 

"And draw attention to myself again, reminding them of where I came from and drawing forth their questions again?" Makoto pointed out. "More so, they may underestimate you for it all." 

"I don't know," she replied. "I suppose it's worth a shot, if you think it could work." 

"It could," he said. "Don't underestimate yourself, either. You could be a good deal more than you allow yourself to be, my dear." 

"What do you mean?" 

"You have potential far beyond anything you've ever been willing to acknowledge," he told her. "Your little magical tricks are but a hint of what you really could be capable of if you put yourself to it." 

"Was that why you wanted me so badly?" she asked quietly. 

"In part, perhaps," he said. "From the moment I saw you, I could see that potential shining in your aura like a beacon, and yet unrealized. Rather like, I think, how I had discovered that my own went far beyond the simple healing gifts which had been thought to be my primary powers. I had not mentioned it to you before because I could not yet be sure that you were truly mine, and I would hate for you to have gotten the idea into your head of using such against me." 

"That's understandable I suppose," she admitted. "And now?" 

"Now you are mine," he said with a grin, wrapping an arm around her waist. "My darling fox, my dear little kitsune. And now that I have you, I'm not willing to let you go again easily. But fear not, my dear, for I will not let you come to harm if I can help it." 

Toriko sighed softly and put her arm around him as well. "If that's how it must be, then so be it," she said quietly. No matter how much she wished things might have been able to be different between them. 

"You seem a touch unhappy with that still," he said to her. 

"You have a very dominant personality," she commented. "I'll admit it does make me a little uncomfortable at times. But I have no regrets, and I would not dare to rethink the choice that I made. I do love you very much and I will stay with you regardless." 

"I'm glad to hear that," he replied, squeezing her gently. 

"And if it makes you happy, I will do it and be glad of it," she admitted. "Whatever my own feelings on the matter might truly be." 

After several hours of travelling, they came down to the coast, the trees breaking and giving way to a view of the bay stretching below. Although it had lengthened their journey a bit, they had intentionally avoided the main roads so as not to attract the attention of anyone that might be searching for them. They came out near a harbor town, and judging by the blue flags flying over it, it was also being held by the Takirans at the moment. 

"Should we head down into the town, Master?" Toriko asked quietly. She wasn't really sure if she liked calling him that, but seeing his satisfied half-smile was reason enough for her. It made him happy, even such a small thing, and that was all that really mattered. 

Makoto shook his head. "Not right now, I don't think. Call me paranoid, but I get this feeling that we'll find ourselves in quite the heap of trouble if we do. Admittedly it's a bigger town and we might be able to get lost in the crowds, but I'm not willing to take the chance just now." 

"Should we just try to find a boat, then?" she asked. "They may have cut off sea travel from the main ports, but they couldn't control every single fishing boat along miles of coastline." 

"And they'd not think much of any boat they thought too small to manage to make it to the next island," Makoto added, nodding in agreement. "Their complacence will be our break, since we could get to the next island on a large log if we had to." 

They made their way warily along the coastline as the day faded into evening, putting some distance between them and the port town. It would not do to get out on a boat close enough to the town to be spotted from there easily. Travelling several more miles to the east, they came upon a tiny fishing village as the sun was setting. The place was too small to even have a real inn, but as it was late the friendly fishers readily agreed to let them use a spare room for the night for a few coins, and gave them a nice dinner of fish and rice for a few more. The room was hardly the most comfortable or clean one that Toriko had ever been in, but it was suitable enough. 

The next morning, after eating a breakfast of more fish and rice, Makoto approached one of the fishermen and said, "Say, I don't suppose you have a boat you'd be willing to part with by chance, do you?" 

"That depends," the man replied. "We need all the ones we got, but I like the color of your coin. How badly do you need it?" He grinned a bit. "We ain't so far out here to have not heard about the Takirans coming in and trying to boss people around. I don't like 'em much, though, and I'm willing to forget what they said for a little bit, but it'll cost you." 

They negotiated on a price, and Makoto ended up handing over to him enough hannas to buy ten boats with. "Thank you much, and good luck to you," he said. 

"Don't know what you did to make them want you so badly, don't care either," the fisherman said, and he took out one of the coins and bit it. Satisfied, he nodded to them and said, "Good luck to you also." He turned and headed away as the two of them climbed into the small fishing boat. 

Makoto opened the small sail and directed them to the southeast, away from the island and the larger towns. "Let's hope nobody sees that," he said. "We should be far enough away from the main towns that even if anyone does, they'll hopefully just take it to be fishers out fishing or something. Next stop, Kazeshima. Never thought I'd be looking forward to seeing that windy chunk of rock. And here's to hoping the Takirans aren't there for some reason too."


	13. Wind

The winds around Kazeshima were not feeling particularly friendly toward their sail today, so as they approached they had to take down the sail and row the remainder of the way. It was late evening by the time they made landfall on the western coast of the island, and there weren't any towns or fishing villages in sight from the spot they ended up at. This did not appear to bother Makoto in the least as he merely tied up their boat to a handy rock and pulled out some rations and a bedroll. 

"I haven't been to this island before," Toriko commented as she munched on her food, sitting on a rock near the water. "Does anyone actually live here, or is it just an empty chunk of windy rock, as you've so poetically described it?" 

"There's a couple towns," Makoto replied. "Nothing particularly huge and impressive, but you'd be surprised. Humans will live anywhere. Sometimes even places you'd not think it remotely physically possible for them to be able to survive in, somehow they manage to find a way to live there. You wouldn't believe some of the crazy things I've heard over the years." 

"So where are we going from here?" she asked. "The island of Takira is in completely the other direction, if that's still what you were intending on doing." 

"Exactly," he said, gesturing at her with a bit of food. "They won't expect to find me out this way." 

"But, wouldn't they expect you to be trying to run away from them and not toward them?" Toriko pointed out with a smirk. 

Makoto snickered softly and said, "You have a point, but still. I'm hoping to find a larger boat that could sustain the long journey to the big island. Maybe run across these friends of yours you mentioned, if we get lucky, assuming they aren't halfway to Zarhanna by now or something." 

"Maybe," she replied, not feeling too confident about it, however. 

"In the morning we'll row up along the coastline until we get to a town or something, I think," he said. 

Once they finished eating, they curled up within one another's arms in the bedroll and fell asleep. Hardly the most comfortable of accommodations, and Toriko could clearly feel the rocks underneath their bedding, but she was with Makoto, so all of that didn't really matter to her. 

"Ahoy there, matey!" said a harsh, female voice, jarring her awake to blink into the morning sunlight. "What have we here? A pair o' scurvy dogs washed up ashore, eh?" 

Makoto stirred and also looked up warily at the human woman dressed up in flamboyant pirate garb. "Sanzoku?" Toriko said thickly as she realized who it was. She looked about and saw the elf and the mermaid nearby as well, grinning at them broadly. "How in the Abyss did you find me?" 

"Just a touch o' magic, lassie," Sanzoku replied, flicking her fingers. 

"You have a Seeker?" Makoto asked, raising an eyebrow. "Of course, once we left the castle any good Seeker would have been able to pinpoint our location." 

"And who's this dog that done washed up with ye, Kishou? I ain't recognizing him." 

Toriko stood up and climbed out of the bedroll, stretching a bit. "This here is Makoto," she said. "And I decided I don't like the name Kishou. It sounds too much like somebody sneezing. I'm currently calling myself Toriko." 

"That's the third name you've gone through this year," the mermaid, Iruka, put in with a smirk as she and the elf came up beside them. "When are you going to find one you like and just stick with it?" 

"Well, not just yet I don't think," Toriko said with a faint smirk. 

"Yeah, I don't doubt that," Iruka replied. "Whatever possessed you to call yourself Toriko, anyway?" 

"Being imprisoned in a dark fortress of doom, primarily," Toriko replied dryly. 

"Oh," Iruka said. "I suppose that would be a good reason, yes. You mean you were stuck there the entire time after you disappeared during that attack on Kanson?" 

"For the most part, yeah," Toriko said. "It's okay though, I'm fine, thanks to Makoto here." 

"Well, that's good," Iruka said. 

"Arrr!" Sanzoku put in. "Let's ship up, mateys, and get on off back to yon ship! There be seas just waiting to be sailed and the winds are fair and clement on this day!" 

"Let's get this boat to the next town and see if we can find someone to take it off our hands," Makoto said, gesturing toward the small fishing boat that was still happily tied up to the shore. "Probably for a lot less than I paid for it, but still, it served its job well and got us away from there." 

"Aye, those scurvy Takirans wouldn't let us land, or we'd have picked ye up over there instead of here," Sanzoku replied, spitting. "Them landlubbers need to get what for." 

"We were planning on heading over Takira ourselves," Makoto said to her. "Would you happen to be inclined to sail in that direction, by chance?" 

"What purpose be ye to visit them filthy bilge rats?" Sanzoku asked. 

"Nothing they'd appreciate, I'm sure," Makoto replied ambiguously. 

"Arrr! Well, if the dogs be getting keelhauled over it, then I be all for it," Sanzoku said. "To Davy Jones' locker with them!" 

They gathered up the little boat and took it down along the coast to the next town, which wasn't too far away at least, although it was hardly a particularly large town. Sanzoku's sloop was anchored in the harbor, and when Makoto caught sight of it, he said, "Wait, _that's_ your ship?" 

"Aye, matey!" Sanzoku replied enthusiastically. "Ain't she a beauty?" 

"Are you sure we'll all fit on it?" Makoto replied with a smirk jokingly. 

"Arrr!" Sanzoku interjected. "Don't ye be knocking me ship or ye'll be swimming with the fishes. She be the fastest thing to sail the seven seas, an' she'll sail circles around them big Takiran galleons, I tell ye." 

Makoto went and took the fishing boat over for a quick sale, and ended up getting more for it than he had expected to. Then they went over and boarded Sanzoku's ship. The crew clamored in excitement as they came aboard. 

"Look, mateys, the fox be back!" said the first mate. "And she done brought with her another scurvy dog!" He was dressed all in black and had an eye patch over his right eye. 

"Well, hello to you too," Makoto said to them lightly. "A pleasure to meet you. The name's Makoto." 

"Arrr! I be One-Eyed Yoshi, an' I be a ninja pirate!" 

Makoto leaned over to the kitsune and said quietly, "Toriko dear, are you sure this ship is safe? The people here seem just a little bit off to me." 

Toriko laughed lightly and said, "Like you can talk? Don't worry, they're harmless, really. Mostly. Well, at least if you're on their side, they can be pretty vicious to their enemies." 

Sanzoku shouted to the crew, "Get yer butts in gear, mates! We be sailing to Takira to show them scurvy dogs what for! Hoist the sails! Weigh anchor! Batten down the hatches! Get a move on!" 

The crew diligently began preparing for their journey, rallying in approval at her sentiments. The Imperial family of Takira was clearly less well-loved among these pirates than the majority of the Sunrise Islanders, who for the most part primarily just ignored them except when they came to visit, during which time they gave lip-service to patriotism and obedience to the throne. But not these pirates, who would gladly spit in the face of the Emperor himself given the opportunity. 

As they began to sail out from the harbor on Kazeshima, the elven bard Hellath pulled out his heledhar and began to sing something that sounded like a cross between an old sea chantey and a heroic ballad. It primarily seemed to involve the various antics that someone named Elen the Excellent did with his two wives in bed. It seemed to be certain as to the reasons why Elen had at least six children, so it claimed at any rate. 

Makoto stood at the stern of the ship looking off as the island of Kazeshima fell into the distance behind them as the wind carried them away off into the open seas. Toriko came up behind him and put an arm around his waist, and he smiled faintly at her and put a hand on hers. 

"Certainly not what I might have originally had in mind back before the Takirans came," Makoto commented. "But this should certainly be suitable enough, if it's as fast as Sanzoku claims it to be. Even so, still, the journey will not be all that short a one." 

"So what are you planning on doing once we get there?" Toriko wondered, leaning against the railing next to him. 

"I'm not too sure yet," Makoto replied. "At least plenty of time to get some plans in order while we sail. Maybe these 'ninja pirates' here might prove to be some use, if they're halfway worth their snuff." 

"Could well yes, certainly," she replied. "I've seen them in action a good time or two myself, both at sea and on the land." She winced a bit as the raucous singing cascaded to entirely new levels. "They are, however, capable of shutting up once in a while, as well, although you might doubt that considering their antics. They're just excited to be underway and doing something, I guess." 

"They don't seem overly fond of Takira," Makoto commented. 

"Takira tends to make a great scapegoat for authority in general when it contradicts what they want to do," Toriko replied. "They'd probably rebel against any government no matter who was in charge of it, solely for the sake of rebellion." 

"Why do they do that?" he wondered curiously. "Surely you'd think they'd find one or another ruler who suited them to follow." 

"They have," Toriko pointed out with a smirk. "And her name is Sanzoku. They won't acknowledge any authority other than their captain, and consider their own ship to be her sovereign territory. Until they decide she's not doing her job and find a new captain. But she's been the captain of this ship for years now, and they do love her, since she's cunning and aggressive, but not too reckless or timid." 

"I must have spent far too much time on land, clearly," Makoto replied, chuckling softly. "Seems like an awfully strange system to me. I have to wonder how it even works." 

"I have no idea," Toriko said. "Sometimes I think the ship is held together solely by the virtue of spit and string, but in the end, I have to admit that it does work, somehow." 

They had not gone far before an alert from the crow's nest came down about a trio of Takiran frigates having been sighted approaching them. "They look to be trying to cut us off, Cap'n, shall we give 'em a run for it?" asked One-Eyed Yoshi. 

"Ha, these scurvy landlubbers don't know what real sailors is made of," Sanzoku replied. "Let's run the fools into the reef, an' see how they likes their big, bloated ships then, shall we?" 

"Aye aye, Cap'n!" the first mate replied enthusiastically, then went to see about relaying her orders to the crew. 

Toriko watched from the side of the ship off at the many-sailed ships that were trying to gain on them. She had never been much of a sailor herself, but she had been aboard this ship for enough time over the years to be used to its movements. The pirates turned the ship this way and that, carefully maintaining a speed to allow the larger Takiran ships to stay close enough to tantalize them about catching the quick little sloop. 

They must have realized they were being toyed with, however, as two of the ships turned back and sailed away, leaving only one of the frigates to continue to give chase. "Arrr, the bilge rats think they be keeping chasing us, do they?" Sanzoku commented with a grin that showed off her gold tooth. "Bring 'er up starboard, boys. Let's ride 'er over the shoals. See how they like that, aye?" 

There was a strong, steady wind helping them in that direction, and the small ship picked up speed, zipping off across the shallows. The large frigate clearly realized it was being led into a trap, and tried to turn around and avoid being run into the shoals, but the wind was too strong and they had acted too late. There was a sickening crunching sound as the big ship crashed into the shallow rocks and became lodged firmly there. 

"Ahoy!" Sanzoku cried. "Circle around back there and let's get ourselves some booty, boys." 

The panicked Takirans were frantically scrambling aboard the lifeboats as their ship listed and took on water, sinking as far as the irregular, shallow rocks it was resting on would allow it to. The sloop turned slowly and came around in a zigzag, approaching the disabled frigate through the heavy wind. The Takiran ship captain remained stubbornly perched upon his vessel's bow, although the ideal of going down with the ship didn't really work too well when the ship was failing to really go down much. 

"Damn you pirate scum!" he shouted at them when they came close enough to hear. "Look what you've done to my beautiful ship!" 

"Can't say ye didn't have it coming, what with chasing around innocent persons like that," Sanzoku replied with a grin. "Why was it ye was chasing us, anyhow?" 

"You're carrying somebody we're looking for," the Takiran captain replied. "Nothing personal, I assure you, but our Seeker was quite certain of his location. Don't think that you'll be able to get away so easily, because the message has already been relayed to the Takiran fleet." 

"Has it now?" Sanzoku replied. "String him up, boys, and take whatever booty we can carry."


	14. Truth

"So, Makoto," Sanzoku said later, addressing him. "I be presuming he must've meant ye. Was they a mite annoyed over yer sneaking out from under their noses in that little fishing boat, or something more, perhaps?" 

"That's a bit of a long story, really," Makoto replied with a smirk. "I'm not sure if I'd care to get into it all just now." 

"Well, we got a fair bit of a journey ahead of use, mate," Sanzoku pointed out. "But if ye don't want to talk about it, suppose I can understand that. Ain't like I'm going to hang ye from the yardarm or keelhaul ye for it, anyway." 

"Not sure how their Seeker must have pinpointed me, myself," Makoto mused. "Maybe through a remote aura reading. Can't think of anything else they might have done." 

Toriko murmured quietly aside to Makoto, "I'd trust Sanzoku with my life." 

Makoto sighed softly and nodded to her, and said to Sanzoku, "Shall we go inside and discuss things in more detail, perhaps?" 

Sanzoku replied, "Aye, this way." She led them off into a small cabin with some chairs and a table nailed to the floor and gestured to them to take a seat. Hellath, Iruka, and One-Eyed Yoshi shortly joined them as well. "Now," Sanzoku said. "I'm dying to know just what this here big secret is, mate." 

Makoto settled into one of the seats and looked across at her a little uncomfortably at the veritable crowd that had been gathered in the little room. Toriko could not recall ever having seen him ill at ease with speaking or crowds. He had always had this aura of confidence about him when dealing with others, but now he seemed almost nervous, perhaps because he knew that if the pirates did not like what he had to say, they could very likely throw him overboard. 

"Well," Makoto said, "For starters, I am a werewolf." 

"Arrr," One-Eyed Yoshi commented. "Ye really are a scurvy dog then, ain't ye?" 

"Oh, you're a werewolf, really?" Iruka said excitedly. "That's neat. I'm a were-dolphin myself. Or a 'mermaid' as these heathens call me. Silly people. We really call ourselves the Valiar, technically, but that term doesn't tend to get used much outside the water from what I've seen. Pity, really, as I find it a rather much prettier word than were-dolphin or mermaid, myself." 

"If I could please continue?" Makoto put in, interrupting her rambling tirade. 

"Oh, sorry," Iruka said. "Didn't mean to interrupt. I get carried away sometimes, don't mind me. Do go on." 

"Right, okay," Makoto said with a smirk, and sighed. "Yes, aside from being a werewolf, I have also gone by the name Zannin. Some of you here may or may not be familiar with that name from your travels, as I'm sure news of my activities and various exploits must have travelled quite a good deal to have reached the Takirans and annoyed them." 

"Zannin?" Sanzoku repeated. "Now where has I heard that name afore? Wasn't ye the crazy wolf-man they was all talking about in port? The one they thought was trying to take over the world or some such crazy crap like that?" 

Makoto smirked at her and said, "Yes, that would be the one. I'll assure you, the rumors have been greatly exaggerated." 

"They generally are," Sanzoku replied. "Suppose yer going to tell us the truth of the matter then, huh?" 

"I wasn't actually intending on taking over the world," Makoto said, chuckling softly. "Just the Sunrise Islands. And for all the hate for the Takirans I've heard from the lot of you, you won't make me believe that you actually care for what they're doing either." 

"Bah, ye wouldn't be wanting to try to shut down piracy then would ye? Better not," Sanzoku said, frowning. 

"Of course not," Makoto assured her. "Such is an integral part of our society, without which the prospects of a stable economy would surely collapse under the weight of complacence. Wealth should, of course, only be held by those strong enough to keep it." 

They considered his words thoughtfully for a moment. Iruka wondered, "But if you took over the Sunrise Islands, what would you actually _do_ , then?" 

"Get things in order, shape things up, create a system in which those who deserve it can really rise to the top," Makoto replied. "And not a bunch of inbred retarded supposedly royal men and women who really don't know what they're actually doing and can't keep any semblance of order amongst the islands if they had to count it on their fingers." 

"Well, can't say I could complain too awful much," Sanzoku commented. "Somebody's gotta run the job, after all, or somebody even worse would end up filling the vacuum. Best shake things up a bit and see if some good can't come of it perhaps." 

"Arrr," One-Eyed Yoshi put in. "I ain't be sure if I'm liking the idea too much. Just ain't feeling right, to be replacing one scurvy tyrant with another. I ain't caring about one ruler or another overmuch, though, so maybe getting the old dogs out of the way might benefit us some." 

"So what exactly are you planning on doing, then?" Iruka wondered. "I can't imagine that the Takiran Imperial family would just readily step aside for the sake of some random person they're trying to kill. You'd probably end up having to kill a whole bunch of people, and then kill more people who aren't happy with it just to get your point across, and even then there's no real guarantee that everyone would even listen to you and you might have just killed lots of people for nothing and degenerated the Sunrise Islands into the state of a bloody civil war as people fight one another and try to claim their own rulership over the Islands in general or their own little bit of turf which might last for years or decades before things finally settled down into a relatively peaceful state again." 

"Yes, I'll have to kill them," Makoto said, shaking his head slowly. "It may certainly well end up being very chaotic and bloody, to be sure. But there would be plenty of room in all that for someone to take some advantage of that. They would, of course, end up being more concerned about their primary issues than about going after random pirates, after all." 

"Arrr, the man has a point," One-Eyed Yoshi admitted. "If it ain't always one island ruler or another wanting to bring us in for something or other, it's them Takiran landlubbers. Surely be nice to have them all off our backs and worrying about something else for a little while for a change." 

Hellath began to strum his heledhar as if to begin to sing, but a sharp look from Sanzoku made him grin sheepishly and put it away. "Right," Sanzoku put in. "But how do ye plan to off the scurvy dogs, and where is it that we come in, asides providing transportation over there?" 

"Yeah, I was thinking I might need some help with that, if you kindly folks would be willing and able to provide," Makoto said. "I'm sure there would be plenty of plunder and booty available for you if you did, of course." He grinned coyly at the pirates. 

"Hmm, yes, I do imagine the Imperial palace would have plenty of booty they ain't needing," One-Eyed Yoshi mused thoughtfully. "But it would be risky, of course. I be thinking it may be worth the risk, though. If we be sneaky enough, they may not even reckon we was there until we be miles away." 

"It could be done," Sanzoku said, nodding. "The question, of course, is ought we? If they ever managed to trace it back to us, we'd be hunted even more than we already be. Not that I ever let such a thing stop me from doing something afore." 

"But then if ye did manage to take over the place," One-Eyed Yoshi pondered aloud. "Ye'd end up expecting us to be servants of the throne or something, wouldn't ye? An' we be freebooting pirates, not members of some royal navy." 

"I am certain that a mutually beneficial agreement could be arranged," Makoto told him with a smile. "I'd certainly not expect you to give up your way of life, which you clearly enjoy, after all. But then, neither could I have you going after anyone who happened to be working directly for me, then, now could I? And I do imagine that if I had any specific requests to make of you, it would be on strictly a voluntary basis, and there would no doubt be plenty of rewards involved for you, of course." 

"Hmm, yes," One-Eyed Yoshi said. "I do believe that sort of arrangement might be acceptable, methinks. Ain't got nothing against somebody suggesting a good thing to plunder, and if there be no plunder there to be taken they better be providing the booty for us themselves, eh?" 

"Indeed," Makoto agreed. "So, what do you folks say? Think you can lend me a hand in stirring things up a bit around here and seeing if I can't make an omelette?" 

"Your analogy be making me hungry," Sanzoku commented. "But aye, that we can do, methinks. We'll have to see if we can't procure some detailed maps of the Imperial Palace somewhere so we can better plan our stealthy approach, as there surely ain't enough of us to perform a head-on assault of such a heavily defended place." 

Makoto nodded in agreement. "Perhaps we'll find a away to acquire such information somewhere along the way, with any luck." 

The meeting broke up shortly enough and the various people headed their separate ways to make plans and preparations and deal with things in the interim. Hellath, his ban upon singing lifted once the serious meeting was over, proceeded to prance out onto the deck and play his heledhar. 

"They were boinking in the bedroom  
Boinking in the kitchen  
Boinking on the altar in the temple in the night  
Boinking in the dungeon  
Boinking in the tower  
Boinking on the poop deck on the pirate ship tonight..."

Toriko snickered softly at him and commented aside to Makoto, "Don't mind him. He claims to always have a song for every occasion, and sometimes he does, but when he can't think of one he just ends up singing some sordid tune about sex that he probably just made up on the spot anyway." 

"He does give me a few ideas," Makoto replied coyly, grinning at her and reaching over to goose her on the bottom. 

Toriko laughed aloud and said, "Hey! Well, you do have a point. Although, I do have to wonder just who it was that came up with the name 'poop deck', and more importantly, why. Sounds to me like a euphemism for something else." 

"I have no idea," Makoto said. "Personally I don't think I care too much to ask, myself. At least this ship has women aboard so that I don't end up having to wonder whether all the pirates are gay or just end up being celibate most of the time and boinking, as the elf so colloquially put it, women the minute they come into harbor." 

"I never exactly tended to pry much into the sex lives of pirates," Toriko commented wryly. 

"Did you ever have sex with any of them?" he asked her. 

Toriko smirked at him faintly and says, "Well, a couple, I'll admit. The pirates though? I was never in love with any of them. Now, I wouldn't want anyone other than you." 

"I'm glad to hear that," Makoto replied, pulling her close to give her a soft kiss on the lips. "I don't think that I would care to share you with anyone else." 

She grinned at him and wrapped her arms around him. "Well, not to worry, my love. You won't have to. I'm all yours." 

They went to head below into a private room, although it was tiny and Makoto would have been very uncomfortable in his wolf-man form here. Sex on a pirate ship, and they could certainly use the time to relax and unwind for a little bit before things really came in for a head at the end of their journey. Toriko didn't know how long it might take to reach Takira, certain that the pirates would take plenty of stops along the way at various ports, either to trade or rob them, and find passing ships to assault between the islands as they went as well. 

The pirate ship sailed off into the setting sun as it cast a wash of color across the sea and the skies, illuminating their world with vibrant reds and violets for a few brief moments before its light, too, faded away, and darkness descended upon the face of the sea.


	15. Plunder

The ship sailed off into the night, undisturbed by any further attacks, and Toriko and Makoto rose with the sun that poked its head over the stretching ocean to come rising behind the ship again. They went down to the mess hall to get something for breakfast, which primarily involved a treat of some of the plunder they had salvaged from the sunken Takiran frigate that they had run aground on the rocks the day before, although the perpetual rice and fish was available as well, as usual. 

"A pity, really," Makoto replied lightly. "And here I was hoping for some more exotic fare." 

Toriko smirked at him in some amusement. "They don't typically serve the kinds of interesting meals you'd particularly enjoy, my love." 

"Ah well," he said with mock despair. "I shall live on somehow." 

Toriko snickered and nudged him in the arm. "You're certainly in a silly mood today." 

"Well, can you blame me?" he replied. "After a night like that, who wouldn't be in a good mood? I daresay I was a bit afraid we'd end up rocking the boat." 

"Ah, this little ship is harder to sink than you'd think," she said. "You wouldn't believe some of the things that it's been through. You'd have to wonder if it doesn't have a little touch of magic to it, itself." 

Late that evening, they reached a medium-sized port town where they were able to sell off many of the valuables that they had salvaged from the Takiran frigate that weren't immediately useful to their voyage, making some room in their hold for the plunder that the pirates expected to gather along the way even before they arrived at their final destination. They stopped that night at the local bars, taverns, and inns, and Toriko and Makoto watched them with some amusement as they ate their own dinner. 

"Are they always like this?" Makoto asked, watching the rowdy pirates singing badly and drinking alcohol like there was no tomorrow. 

"When they're in a good mood, yeah," Toriko replied. "When they've got plunder to burn on drinks and wenches at any rate." 

"I think they must have spent half their profits from this last voyage on entertainment," Makoto commented wryly. "Not that I couldn't understand that sentiment, if that's really what they want to do with it, nothing better than indulging in your own whims for the sheer pleasure of it, after all. But they'll surely be sorry about it once they run out of money and can't do that anymore." 

"Exactly," she pointed out. "That's why they need to keep in a steady stream of plunder coming. Because they tend to spend it as quickly as they get it, but they don't really mind that so long as they know there'll be more coming over the horizon." 

"So this voyage is going to end up being longer than it otherwise would be, due to stopping at every port to party and assaulting every ship that passes our way?" Makoto asked dryly. 

"Pretty much," Toriko said, snickering softly. "But you can bet they'll get the job done and be happy and refreshed for it when they do." 

"I hope so," Makoto said. "I want to make sure this is done right, and cleanly, without anything going drastically wrong." 

Toriko gave a nod. "With some skill and luck, we could manage it." 

They set off again the next down out onto the open seas once again, leaving port shortly after dawn. Days slid past in much the same way, as the pirates found and attacked passing ships, lightening their loads a bit before sailing on, and selling much of the plunder at the next town for profit, and then spending much of that money on alcohol and other entertainments. 

They were pleased enough that Makoto quickly proved his worth, pulling his own weight among the crew with his fighting skill and magical prowess. Several of the pirates lived without permanent injury who might have otherwise died of their wounds or have been forced into an early retirement or a replacement of a limb or gaining an eyepatch because of his healing efforts. 

"Arrr," One-Eyed Yoshi said, "That there Makoto is a right handy one to have around. If he was around back when I lost me eye, I'd not have the name I do today. I'd just be plain old Yoshi. Or maybe Ninja Pirate Yoshi. Or something o' that nature." 

Makoto said to him, "You know, healing isn't my only skill that I could offer. I am also rather skilled with the ways of enchantments and such, as well. I could enchant your eyepatch to let you see with it magically better than you could before." 

"Arrr, could ye really?" One-Eyed Yoshi said, looking over to him with his good eye with great interest. "Let's see what ye can do with it, then." He pulled off his eyepatch, revealing the nasty, scarred socket underneath, and handed it over to Makoto. 

"Alright," Makoto said, taking it and nodding to him. "I'll see what I can do with this and get this back to you tomorrow." 

"I'll be looking forward to seeing what ye might be done," Yoshi replied. 

Makoto headed off and spent much of the evening working on the eyepatch, weaving together distinct threads of magic into the cloth and tying them in place like a tapestry to form a useful enchantment that might allow even a blind man to see with it. He didn't even stop there, however, making the vision of the enchanted eyepatch clear and sharp, capable of seeing much further than the naked eye might manage, of spotting hidden or invisible objects with ease, and seeing well even in complete darkness. 

When he returned the object to One-Eyed Yoshi the next day, the response was ecstatic. "By Shazmar! I ain't never seen anything like this afore! This is most excellent! Ye has truly outdone yeself here, me good boy." 

Makoto grinned and said, "I'm glad you like it." 

He and Toriko had taken up sailing garb when they'd come aboard the ship so as not to stand out too much from the regular crew. Like Hellath and Iruka, however, they likewise insisted on still speaking with their normal "landlubber" talk and not the bizarre pirate accent that most of the crew sported. Toriko could hardly blame him, as she found it to be fairly forced and just plain silly much of the time herself, since she knew perfectly well that Sanzoku could speak in a perfectly normal manner if she so chose to. 

As they travelled on, they continued to discretely attempt to acquire a map of the interior of the Imperial palace, without making it too obvious just what they were trying to do, although asking about maps around at various taverns in the port towns they visited was not, of course, particularly out of the question, considering how frequently pirates and would-be treasure hunters attempted to locate maps for buried treasure, and various shadowy figures that sat around in the corners of taverns waiting for somebody to sell their various scraps of parchment to, many of which were perfectly genuine but completely useless toward what they happened to be attempting to accomplish at the present time, as they really didn't particularly wish to head off in the opposite direction entirely to hunt for some treasure that might or might not be buried on some remote desert island in the middle of nowhere at some point some time ago by pirates or whoever else for whatever reason, leaving it sit there to wait for decades or centuries for somebody to come along and dig it up again, or perhaps just for some random species of burrowing wildlife to feel like digging around in the ground where it happened to be buried and laying its eggs on top of the chest so that when somebody did eventually come to dig the thing up they ended up getting their fingers bitten off by the vicious young of some burrowing shore-dwelling reptile instead. 

Thus far, however, that particular endeavor was still coming up empty. "Mayhap we'll end up with some better luck in that once we get closer to Takira," Sanzoku commented. "We still be pretty far away from there yet." 

"Let's hope so," Makoto said. "I would so hate to end up wandering around in that place blindly without any idea just where we're going, but I could probably come up with a magic map or something to make up for that if need be." 

"Mayhap ye should," Sanzoku said. "Ye got the time to do it on the way there, an' it'll likely be more accurate than anything we might pick up, after all." 

"You have a point there," Makoto said, nodding. "I'll see what I can put together." 

He gathered up a moderately sized piece of parchment and settled in to their quarters again to see about weaving together another enchantment onto it, this one a rather different one than the one he had put on the eyepatch, although there were similarities as both utilized Seeking magic. Toriko sat across from him watching him as he worked, although she could not hope to decipher the complex strands of power he put together and tied into the paper. 

"It's going to be tricky to manage this," Makoto mused as he worked. "I'll need to take into account multiple floors, and possible secret passages as well. It'll work best if the parchment itself actually scans its surroundings and gives a visual representation of what it can locate, although this will come into some issues if there are areas of the palace which are warded against Seeking." 

"Wouldn't it then be able to give a map of just about anywhere you'd go, then, though?" she wondered. 

Makoto nodded. "It could do that, yes. It's going to take quite some time for me to get all the weaves in place. Right now I'm primarily just working on the framework here, getting a skeleton in place to put later weaves onto, and putting in basic things like making it nearly indestructible. Not much sense in going to all this trouble for such a complex weave only to have it tossed into a fireplace or something." 

"I don't know how you do it," Toriko mused. "Such crazily complex enchantments, in the end they end up making it look so easy just what they're doing, but take such a long time and effort to really put together. I suppose that's the true mark of skill, to make doing extremely difficult things end up looking easy if you don't know how hard it is. The onlooker doesn't really realize just what all goes into it." 

He chuckled softly and nodded to her in agreement. "There's certainly a lot that goes into it. It took years enough to get this all down, and I was inborn to it, even. I could enchant an item to do any number of things I'd never be able to accomplish myself without that assistance, but it would take time and effort to put the enchantments in place. But in a way, it's a very freeing feeling because I could probably accomplish just about anything given that time and effort. It's a pity that there are some things which Seeking cannot identify quite so easily. It can figure out a person's species, abilities, and such, even the name they know themselves as, but it's much more difficult to figure out their blood relations, since that's a lot less obvious and doesn't show up easily in physical features or their aura, otherwise I could just end up making an item that hunts down members of the Imperial family and skip all this trouble." 

"Why is it easy to pick up someone's abilities but not their relations?" Toriko wondered. 

"It's the aura, you see," Makoto explained. "All sorts of interesting things like that show up in somebody's aura, which anyone with some ability with Seeking can see around a person. Different abilities show up in different colors. Other things like whether they're a shapeshifter or whatnot will show up as well. Different power levels will show up differently, as a more powerful mage will have a brighter and more vibrant aura than a very weak one." 

"But then why can't you tell what family someone belongs to? Didn't you say it could tell their name?" 

Makoto nodded and said, "Minor telepathy, as a person's name that they respond to is laced all over their mind, and it's very easy to pick it up even if they otherwise have defenses against mental intrusion unless they are intentionally concealing it. That doesn't work very well if not everyone in the family uses the same family name, as that's also more difficult to pick up than the given name, unless they use it more often, and likewise it won't work on anyone too young to understand what a name really is." 

"What, you aren't proposing murdering children here, are you?" Toriko said with a touch of shock in her voice. Assassinating inept adults was one thing, but innocent children who had never done anything wrong and didn't even realize what was going on or know who they were yet? She was horrified at the idea. 

"What would you do, though? Leave the children orphaned, allow them to live and one day to learn of their heritage and return to do something supposedly 'heroic', causing a good deal of trouble for you down the line? That's hardly an acceptable outcome, either." 

"Well, I guess you have a point," Toriko said reluctantly. "But surely there must be some better solution than that." 

"You don't win wars by being picky about honor," Makoto said. "In another place and time, some might advocate never killing a woman either. But would you think a woman is a helpless, feeble thing that can't defend herself and it would be dishonorable to kill? Of course not. The logic behind it all, of course, is that it's 'not right' to kill someone who can't fight back. But then, sometimes someone must be killed, because all other alternatives don't actually eliminate the problem, merely delay it." 

"I still don't really like the idea of it," Toriko said, shaking her head slowly. "But I'll admit it could be better than some of the alternatives. The question is, though, is it really necessary? What if you just had somebody raise the children to love you instead, or do it yourself?" 

"And if they later discovered that I killed their parents, what then?" Makoto pointed out. "It's too messy, too much could go wrong with it. It doesn't really resolve the matter cleanly." 

"I just can't help but think there must be some better way. But I won't argue it if you think it'll end up being for the best in the long run, Master," she said quietly. 

Makoto smiled at her and set the parchment aside for now, and leaned over to give her a kiss. "Do not fret over it, my dear, loyal fox," he told her gently, wrapping his arms around her. "It will work out in the end." 

Toriko chuckled and curled up next to him, and said, "You're quite the sly and cunning pirate that plundered my still-beating heart." 

"And quite the valuable treasure it is, my dear."


	16. Islands

The pirate ship continued on sailing through the Sunrise Islands, weaving its way through the waters from port to port, plundering what it could and slipping away fast as the wind from what it could not. Makoto continued to work on his magical map as they went, threading strands of magic together like an intricate tapestry of power. As they drew nearer to their destination over days and weeks of time passing, they still didn't manage to come across the palace map they had hoped for, but Makoto assured them that it would likely not be really necessary, as he was pretty sure by that point that he could manage to finish his enchanted map by the time they arrived, and that barring any unusual circumstances, it would work properly upon the palace. 

"So this really might work, then..." Toriko mused, staring out the small porthole in their cabin as Makoto continued to work on the enchanted map. 

"You still doubt it?" Makoto replied with a small grin. Images had started to show up on the map already, like neatly drawn lines with scribbled labels denoting the different parts of the ship. 

"I'm just afraid that something may end up going terribly wrong somewhere," Toriko said quietly. "I would hate to lose you already." 

Makoto smiled warmly at her and said, "Well, while I do appreciate the sentiment, I have no intentions of dying anytime soon. I am, as you might imagine, rather harder to kill than some people would hope, even if they did end up catching up to me." 

"But why were you so afraid of the Takirans finding out who you were then?" Toriko wondered. 

"Not so much that as that it could be quite the inconvenience, and while I might be hard to kill I'm certainly not invulnerable, and it would be foolishly overconfident of me to assume that they could not manage it," Makoto replied. He reached over to lightly touch her face with the back of his fingers, smiling at her a bit. "Don't tell me that you have been worried over me for this entire voyage, have you?" 

"Well, a bit," Toriko admitted, reaching up a hand to take his in her own. "Perhaps a little for myself as well," she murmured. "Though I do hope that my trickery and illusions may be of use when it comes down to the attack on the Imperial Palace." 

"They may well at that," Makoto said, squeezing her hand then pulling it back to return to his work on the map again. "We will certainly need more than a little stealth and trickery to slip in there and kill who needs to be killed without alerting them to our presence until it is too late to do anything about it. Stepping into the vacuum made by the slain royal family will be the next step, and that may well be just as tricky. One concern at a time, to be sure, but it always pays to think ahead." 

"I can only hope everything goes as well as it will have to," Toriko said quietly. 

It was a few days of sea travel later before Makoto finally finished the magical map, and tested it out a bit wandering around the ship. Toriko followed after, peering at the parchment over his shoulder. She wasn't sure just how he had gotten it to display people moving upon the map, complete with their names attached and any relevant information about their appearance or abilities, nor was she entirely certain just how it knew what to display at any given time period. It was like the thing was telepathically tuned to what information its holder wanted it to show at any given time. 

"Careful ye don't accidentally toss that there map into yon water, mate," One-Eyed Yoshi warned. 

"It's nearly indestructible," Makoto assured him. "A little dip in water won't really hurt it." 

"Aye, mayhap not, but ye still wouldn't want to go swimming to fish it out of the water again." 

"You have a point there," Makoto admitted with a smirk. 

At the next port that they stopped at, he likewise came ashore and tested the map some more. The map of the ship had been extensive enough, but Toriko was quite impressed at what it displayed when they were in a town. 

"How did you make it display the names of shops and streets?" Toriko wondered as she stared at the enchanted object. 

"Mental skimming," Makoto said. "It fishes out that information out of the minds of those it finds in that location. Since most of them are mensch anyway, they don't have any magical protection against even the simplest and least intrusive of mental scans. Sometimes there won't be anyone present who knows anything about a place or could be scanned, though, so it isn't a particularly reliable method of gathering information." 

"Still, that's amazing," Toriko replied. "I never thought something might be used in that manner, or even that an inanimate object might be able to use magic like that itself." 

"Well, isn't that what all item enchantment basically is anyway?" Makoto said. "Imbuing an object with magical properties and abilities?" 

"I suppose so," she said, frowning thoughtfully over it. "Where did you learn to do all this? It seems all the more amazing to me the more I see. I guess I could not really appreciate it as much before I knew just what goes into it." 

"I'd say a good bit of it I figured out for myself," Makoto said. "Had a very helpful teacher to get me started, certainly, but that was years ago and I've far outgrown his paltry skill long ago." 

"Whatever happened to him, then?" she wondered. 

"I killed him." 

Toriko blinked for a moment and asked, "Why?" 

"It's something of a long story, really," Makoto replied. "Let's just say I'd not be half the bastard I am today if it weren't for him." 

"You're not a bastard," Toriko insisted. 

Makoto chuckled softly and said, "Well, you might not think that, nor I, of course, but plenty of people do, not that I much care what they think. Nevertheless, it's an apt enough description at times, as I can be quite the bastard, to my enemies." 

"I'm glad I'm not your enemy," Toriko said with a small grin, wrapping an arm around his waist. To anyone passing them in public, they might mistake the two of them for an ordinary young human couple in love, perhaps having just gotten married recently. There was no clear or obvious sign between them of what really went on with the wolf and the fox in private, when they were alone in the bedroom. Makoto's dominance was more than just a game to him, it was a need, a hunger, a deeply seated desire that Toriko was all the more happy to provide him now. 

Sanzoku's pirate ship continued on the final leg of the journey, as they were finally nearing the big island of Takira now, the largest piece of land in the archipelago which made up the Sunrise Islands. They flew false colors so that they might less easily be identified as pirates or anyone of ill intent, and proceeded to make preparations for landfall, plans and coordination. For a group of seemingly disorganized pirates, they were quite serious and together when they put their minds to something, and they were intent upon doing this right. Sanzoku would accept no less of them. 

They did not, of course, intend to sail directly into the main port of Takira, the large city with the same name as the island where the Imperial Palace was located, situated at the end of the bay that made up the eastern part of the island. They were planning on going ashore at one of the smaller towns along the bay where less attention might be drawn to their piratical nature. Some stealth and illusions would be necessary, but they intended to be in and out before anyone realized what was going on. Taking the palace as his own would come later, Makoto assured them. 

"Arrr," One-Eyed Yoshi intoned. "We be almost ready to get down to business here. We be setting out to keelhaul these royal bastards!" 

"Arrr!" agreed the rest of the crew enthusiastically. There were no secrets to be kept from them. They knew exactly what was going down and were quite excited about the prospects, whether out of greed for the plunder that could be available, hate for the Takiran royal family, or whatever other combination of reasons. 

"We all know what to do, mateys," Sanzoku said. "We're to be real ninja pirates in this. We must be silent but deadly. We must strike a blow deep into the heart of Takira the likes of which they never shall forget!" 

"Arrr!" shouted the pirates, waving their fists in the air brightly. 

"We shall shake things up here as they never been before!" Sanzoku went on. "This shall be a swift and decisive coup the likes of which they shall never recover from. Down with Takira! Down with the monarchy! Down with the Empire!" 

"Arrr!" 

The ship finally reached the southeastern tip of the island of Takira during the day, the sun high in the sky when the lookout spotted the sandy stretch of land jutting out along the southern edge of Takira's wide bay. They sailed up within sight of the coast, having changed into more normal sailing garb for the sake of this trip rather than the flamboyant piratical clothing they frequently wore. 

"I daresay that lookout up there is probably just staring at sunbathers on the beaches," Toriko commented, glancing up toward the crow's nest. 

"I wonder if they have any nude beaches on Takira," Makoto mused thoughtfully. 

"You're terrible," Toriko said, chuckling and poking him playfully. "You'll make me jealous for even thinking about that." 

"The problem with nude beaches is that they tend to have too many old people on them," Makoto said. "No quality control, I tell you. Humans do get so ugly when they get old. And they aren't good to eat after they reach a certain age, either. They get all stringy and bony, no good meat on them anymore. It's like eating mutton." 

"I'm afraid the first thing I think of when I think about people isn't generally what they might taste like," Toriko said with a smirk. 

"Oh, so you were thinking about their role in the bedroom instead and not at the dinner table?" Makoto replied coyly, feigning innocence. "And you called _me_ terrible?" 

"Now you're just reaching," she said, snickering softly. 

It was afternoon on the next day when they at last reached the town which they intended to launch their venture from, close enough to Takira to walk there within a few hours but far enough away that none would expect them to be in the city itself. Perhaps they were being a bit paranoid in it all, but they knew perfectly well that after news of what they were about to do got out, the city would likely shut down its ports and prevent them from making an easy escape. They'd be less likely to suspect the attack had been launched from a small, outlying town. 

They came into port, slipping off the ship like so many sailors settling in for the night, but one by one they slipped out into the forest, leaving behind only enough for a skeleton crew and cover for them in the town. 

"I hope they know better than to get drunk and chat all over about our plans," Makoto commented dryly as they hiked through the woods. 

"Arrr, don't ye worry, matey," Sanzoku assured him. "They be the most discreet pirates ye'll ever see." 

"That's not really saying all that much, you know," Makoto replied with a smirk. 

"And why did you want everyone going on this thing to wear black, anyway?" Toriko wondered. "That's rather cliché and conspicuous, don't you think?" 

"Black blends in with the darkness better, arrr," One-Eyed Yoshi replied. "This night they shall not see us coming!" 

"I do hope so," Toriko said. "I feel ridiculous in this skin-tight black ninja suit." 

"It looks good on you," Makoto assured her, reaching over to run his hand down her bottom. "It shows off every curve of your body." 

"Won't you be jealous that other people might be looking at those curves?" Toriko said with a smirk. 

"Well, if they are, then we must have done something wrong to defeat the point of these stealthy black suits," Makoto replied. "And I doubt any of these pirate ninjas can see in the dark quite as well as me." 

"Quite a sight they'll be if they end up stumbling around blindly in the dark when they attempted to be sneaky," Toriko said. 

"I thought you said these guys were professionals?" 

"Heh," she said. "Don't worry, they'll get the job done if it kills them. Probably." 

"You're not really encouraging me very much here," Makoto said wryly. 

"Hey, and you said _I_ was the one worrying all the way here? Let's just take this and wish for luck. You got that map?" 

"Yup," Makoto said, pulling it out to show her. Right now all it was showing was a cross-section of forest, marking every tree and bush, but he concentrated a bit and it zoomed out to show more of the island. 

"I still think that's an amazing bit of work there. You could create powerful and renowned artifacts the likes of which would be told of legends and myths for generations to come if you wanted." 

Makoto chuckled softly. "Perhaps I could at that. Though I would rather be known for my deeds than by my trinkets, myself." 

As they made their final approach into the city toward the palace, Sanzoku said quietly, "We're here, mateys. This is it."


	17. The Palace

Makoto pulled out his map and read it carefully, and directed small bands of pirates into the palace with specific directions and instructions toward their objectives. The black-clad ninja pirates nodded toward him and set off stealthily into the darkness in groups of two and three. They had to deal with the challenges before them with stealth and trickery, not through strength in numbers, because there were certainly many more guards and servants in the palace than pirates coming in to attack them. 

"Okay, that's all the ones I'm picking up," Makoto said quietly as there were only a handful of them left. "The map may not be smart enough to figure out who is a member of the royal family or not, but it gives enough information to identify most of them for the most part. Captain Sanzoku, take the rest and head along this corridor and check out this room on the second floor, if you will. Toriko, One-Eyed Yoshi, you're with me. We're going after the big guns here." 

Sanzoku nodded and led the other two ninja pirates into the palace where he had directed. One-Eyed Yoshi said, "Arrr, matey, I be with you, let's keelhaul these scurvy dogs." 

"I have to wonder," Makoto murmured. "Do ninja pirates wield cutlasses or katanas?" 

"Both," One-Eyed Yoshi answered. 

They proceeded to head inside, Makoto watching the map carefully to pinpoint where the guards were patrolling and avoid them or sneak up on them. At Makoto's direction, One-Eyed Yoshi snuck up upon several of the guards along the way and neatly slew them before they even knew what was going on. They moved the bodies off into niches, or beside suits of decorative armor or potted plants, and Toriko placed an illusion weave upon each of them. It would not be perfect and would wear off eventually, but it would prevent anyone from noticing the corpses were there unless they were looking directly at them, hence hopefully permitting them to go longer without anyone raising an alarm. 

Following Makoto's direction, they crept up upon the bedroom in which the Emperor himself was pacing, apparently awake and thinking about something or other well into the night. There were four guards standing watch outside, who appeared more alert and less prone to be snuck up on than the random flunkies which they had slain wandering around in the corridors. 

Makoto held up a hand and peered at the guards from around a corner, then shifted form, sprouting fur and growing into the larger form of the muscular wolf-man, becoming Zannin once again in Toriko's eyes. He nodded to the kitsune, and she also took on her hybrid form, although it wasn't nearly as suited for combat as his, it did have certain advantages. With a gesture to One-Eyed Yoshi, the ninja pirate went to sneak around to approach the doors from the other side. 

After a few moments more of waiting for Yoshi to get in position, Zannin launched himself at the guards with a ferocious roar. The panicked guards turned their attention to him, slashing at him with their swords and failing to notice the ninja pirate stabbing them from behind. Two of them were slain before they even knew what had happened. Toriko leaped at them, fiercely biting and clawing at them and ripping out the exposed throat of a third one even as Zannin crushed the skull of the fourth against the stone wall. 

Zannin practically ripped open the doors, whatever locks there might have been on it shattering under his claws. The Emperor turned and looked to them in shock. He was a small man with a thin beard and mustache, wearing regal robes even in private. "Oh dear Shazmar," he breathed, crossing his wrists to attempt to ward them off with a spell. 

Toriko bounced off his magical shield and went tumbling to the ground, but Zannin ripped through it like it was nothing and proceeded to maul the robed man. A feminine voice could be heard from an adjoining room saying desperately, "Oh my god, _save the baby_." 

Zannin turned aside to One-Eyed Yoshi and Toriko for a moment, looking up from the badly wounded Emperor, and said, "Stop them." 

Toriko nodded and headed into the side room without question, closely followed by One-Eyed Yoshi. There were two women in what appeared to be a nursery, one of them carrying an infant that could not be more than a few months old in her arms. Toriko hesitated here, however, in spite of her talk with her master about it earlier, she had difficulty in bringing herself to harm such a young child. 

That moment of hesitation was enough to allow the woman carrying the baby to dart out the window and onto the roof, keeping her balance with one hand and clinging desperately to the baby with the other, even as One-Eyed Yoshi stormed in behind her to gut the other woman. The ninja pirate headed for the window, not even pausing to look at the Empress quickly bleeding to death on the floor. 

"Makoto said to stop them, come on," One-Eyed Yoshi said to her as he went, not stopping to see if she were actually following or not. 

Toriko blinked for a moment and scrambled out after him, but the nurse had already dropped out of sight somewhere. "Where did she go?" Toriko said, clinging to the rooftop with her claws and wondering how a human, never mind one carrying a child in her arms, could have gotten out this way without slipping and falling. She glances down toward the ground as if expecting to see their bodies below, but there was no sign of them. 

"I don't know," Yoshi replied, heading off nimbly over the sloping roof. "Come on. You check that way." 

Toriko headed off in the direction that he had indicated a little blindly, silently cursing everything that had driven her to this point. She hardly recognized what she had become with Zannin's subtle and not so subtle manipulations. How could she kill a little baby? 

Up ahead in one of the corridors she caught sight of the nurse fleeing frantically, still carrying her precious bundle. Toriko darted after her, pushing her thoughts and doubts aside for the moment ruefully. 

"You can't have him!" gasped the nurse as she realized she was being followed. "You monsters! Help! Help me!" she desperately called out to some nearby guards. 

Toriko's paw found the woman's shoulder and her claws rent deep scratches in her flesh, but the guards shortly distracted her and she was forced to use trickery and illusion to get away, by which point she had lost the woman. There was blood dripping from her claws and she could taste it in her mouth from where she had bitten people. The white socks of her paws had been stained reddish brown. Where had the woman with the baby gone? She ran off, searching in the direction she had last thought her to have gone off in. 

The castle was on full alert now as news of the attack sifted through their chain of command, but many of the guards had already been slain by the ninja pirates before they even realized what was going on, and they weren't able to muster up nearly the fight they might have otherwise been able to. They were still disorganized and confused, rumors circulating as to what had happened. She heard snippets of conversation and speculation as she attempted to evade the guards and locate her quarry. 

"Monsters loose in the palace." 

"Everyone's dead!" 

"The Emperor has been slain!" 

"The Emperor is alive!" 

"The intruders have been thwarted." 

"All is lost!" 

However, wherever she looked, she saw no further sign of the woman, and didn't have Zannin's map. After wandering around searching for a bit more and barely avoiding being captured or killed, she decided it would be a better idea to meet back up with Zannin and tell him what had happened. Maybe he'd be able to locate the woman with the map and they'd be able to track her down. And murder the innocent baby, her mind added. She shook her head out a bit and tried to put that thought out of her mind for the time being, and headed out of the palace back toward the rendezvous point in the forest that they had agreed to meet at. 

Toriko shifted into fox form and wound her way out of the palace and into the wilderness again, nimbly evading capture and escaping serious injury. Out in the clearing with the lightning-scarred tree, she found many of the ninja pirates already waiting, armed and ready in case anyone had followed them. She shifted back into human form and glanced down at her bloodstained hands, and felt it fairly futile to try to wipe some of the blood from her mouth as well. 

Zannin, still in wolf-man form, shortly arrived as well, followed momentarily by One-Eyed Yoshi. "Did you catch them?" Zannin asked, looking between Toriko and Yoshi. "The woman with the baby?" 

One-Eyed Yoshi said, "Arrr, I didn't see no sign of them. They lost me." He glanced expectantly to Toriko. 

"I chased them some ways," Toriko said. "Wounded the woman, but got distracted by guards trying to kill me. I think they must have gotten away." 

"Damn it," Zannin swore. To his credit, he gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed she'd done the best she could in that, and hadn't let them get away intentionally out of being squeamish at killing a child. He pulled out his map and proceeded to peruse it thoroughly for any sign of the nurse. "You're right, something did go terribly wrong. We killed every other member of the royal family, but the infant got away. You know what this means, don't you?" 

"If he lives, he'll end up growing up to get revenge upon you for killing his parents?" Toriko replied, repeating what he had drilled into her before for his reasoning for murdering children. 

"Exactly," Zannin replied. "Damn it all to the Abyss. I can't find her anywhere. Perhaps she bled to death from the wounds you gave her. I can only hope that the child ended up somewhere that it might starve or something." He shifted the focus of the map and showed her, nameless dots covering it and clustered about in cities and towns. "Look at this. This is every child under the age of one that it can pick up. It can't label them because they aren't old enough to really know their own name yet. The only way to be sure would be to kill all of them." 

"You can't be serious," Toriko said, looking at him with a horrified expression on her face. 

"It would not be very feasible," Zannin said. "I am attempting to take over the Sunrise Islands, not anger everyone in wanton slaughter of infants." 

Toriko relaxed at the assurance. "So what are you going to do, then?" she asked. 

"I don't see any of the babies that are in an unusual location for a baby to be in," Zannin mused aloud. "And it would take some time and arouse suspicion if we went around asking if any of them were mysteriously delivered by a stranger who subsequently died." Zannin shook his head slowly, and added, "This very well could ruin everything." 

One-Eyed Yoshi put in, "Arrr, but we better be getting back to the ship anyway if we're going to get away. They'll be looking for us shortly. We don't want to get stuck here if the scurvy dogs close all the ports on the island." 

Zannin snarled and folded up the map again. "You're right. Let's get a move on." 

They hiked double time back through the forest toward the town where they had left the remainder of the crew and the pirate ship. Zannin was not happy at all and did not shift back into human form again until just outside the town. They split up and crept through the streets in small groups so as not to arouse attention, going to pick up their cover crew members along the way. Thankfully the townspeople were still none the wiser here to events that had happened in the capital, and didn't notice the dozens of ninja pirates sneaking through town under cover of darkness. 

"Arrr, mateys!" Sanzoku said to the crew. "Everyone's present and accounted for? Weigh anchor! We want to be out of their sight by the time the sun comes up!" 

They made ready to sail as quickly as they could and set off, sailing away from the island and into the open water even as the sky in the east began to grow pale. By the time the sun broke over the horizon, the big island of Takira was but a quickly receding dark line in the distance.


	18. The Collar

When Toriko woke late the next afternoon, she found Makoto already awake and reading a book in their cabin. She stirred and rubbed her hands, still feeling some of the crusty blood on them from where she had hastily washed them the morning before in saltwater for lack of anything better. She felt filthy and really wanted a real bath, like the one Makoto had given her what seemed like ages ago. 

"What are you reading?" she asked curiously, peering over. 

Makoto held up the book for her to read the title and said it aloud himself, "How to Be an Evil Overlord." 

Toriko snickered softly and said, "Where did you get that?" 

"Well, I'd like to say that I carried it here in my pocket all the time for reference, but Sanzoku had it in her cabin. What she was doing with it I have no idea. Did this pirate woman friend of yours have aspirations I don't know about?" 

"Not to my knowledge," Toriko said with a smirk. "Perhaps she thought it was funny." 

"Yes, I suspect so," Makoto said. "Some of the advice given in here are such blatantly obvious things that I'd find it hard to believe that anyone actually made these mistakes if I didn't know the capacity for stupidity humans and other entities display frequently." 

"Like what?" Toriko asked curiously. 

"For instance, it suggests not employing troops who are completely ineffectual and incapable of hitting a target," Makoto replied. "I would think that would go without saying. There's a place for farmers and servants, and wielding weapons is not that place. Likewise it advises against engaging in any battle situated precipitously over molten lava." 

"That has to be a joke," Toriko said. "Do people actually do things like that?" 

"I would believe it," he said. "People are very frequently deprived of simple common sense when it comes to some things. Like you for instance." He closed the book and looked up at her in such a way that made her suddenly go cold to the bone. 

"W-What do you mean, Master?" Toriko asked quietly. 

"One-Eyed Yoshi informed me that the only reason the woman with the baby escaped was because you hesitated. I have no reason to disbelieve him, knowing your own feelings on the matter, but I'd like you to tell me what really happened yourself." 

Toriko swallowed hard and looked up into his dark brown eyes. "It happened as I said it did," she said quietly. "They may have gotten out the window because I hesitated, but I did chase after them and did the best I could to catch them, but only managed to wound the woman." 

"You swore you would do anything for me," Makoto said darkly. "Would you have killed them for me?" 

Toriko paused, hesitating over the answer, unable and unwilling to give him a flat reassurance to the affirmative that neither of them would believe. "I don't know," she murmured honestly. 

"What would you have done if you had caught them?" 

"I don't know," she whispered. "I might have killed the woman, I think, or left her alive. I think I'd have brought the baby to you alive if possible." 

"The woman was not important, certainly," he said. "Merely a servant and nothing more. Her survival is inconsequential. You would have brought the child to me alive for me to kill, solely to keep its blood off your own hands? If you disliked being responsible for the death of a child, would that have assuaged your guilt any?" 

"I don't know," she said, sighing softly. "Perhaps. However necessary you claimed it might have been, I still don't like the idea of it at all." 

"Even knowing the potential disastrous consequences of failure?" Makoto asked. "You would not wish me to be killed in such a manner because of your own failure, would you?" 

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "I would not wish that, Master. I will try to do better in the future." 

"You had best," he said. "I have been quite lenient toward you thus far, far more than would probably be warranted, all things considered. Perhaps you do not truly appreciate that, my pet. Perhaps you need a sharp reminder of who is the master here, of who you should be obedient and loyal toward, and obey without question or hesitation? I still have that collar as well, you know." 

Toriko cast her gaze to the floor uneasily, then moved to kneel at his feet and murmured, "I'm sorry, Master." 

He pulled out the collar and slid it around her neck again, the silver studs pricking against her skin. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "You will not fail me again," he said to her as he clasped the buckle securely. He moved his hand to her chin and pulled it up so that she was looking into his eyes again. 

"Yes, Master," she said quietly. "I will not fail you, I swear." 

"I believe I shall alter the enchantment on your collar a bit," he mused thoughtfully, tracing a finger along its edge. "Since it shall be you which I will be sending to find the infant and make up for this failure. Yes, I believe that shall do nicely. Far more effective than sending pirates or soldiers after her, as people will be far more likely to trust a woman. You will simply have to claim that you are searching for your own child, after all, and they will be more than willing to help you. By all means, bring the child to me alive if you still wish to, so that I may be certain of your success." 

"I will do as you wish, Master," she whispered in a sort of strained voice, her eyes widening a bit in fear. 

"You had best," he said quietly, running his finger along her chin. "All will be forgiven if you succeed in this. And if you fail me again..." He slipped a finger through the collar and pulled her up close to his face. "You had best have a _very_ good reason for it." 

"Yes, Master," she gasped. He released her to drop onto the floor again with a soft whimpering sound. 

"Good," he said. "Now, as to these modifications. Distance shall be no factor, as that would make it rather useless, don't you think? Yes, some other little restrictions instead. I believe I shall not need to detail them for you this time. Suffice it to say that if you remain loyal to me and follow my commands, you will not need to find out as they will not become an issue. Hmm, yes, and it is rather conspicuous, is it not. If you are going to be travelling undercover it will need to appear to blend in, but I believe you can provide the necessary illusion to manage that yourself, can you not?" 

"I can," she replied quietly, wondering to herself just what sort of restrictions he was intending to place upon her this time. She wondered what her friends would think of all this, if they realized the true relationship between her and this man. She imagined that they would probably be horrified. 

"Mm, good," he said with a flicker of a grin. "Now, remain still while I make the necessary changes to the enchantments on the collar." 

"Yes, Master," she whispered. She remained perfectly still in kneeling there where she remained, not even so much as daring to flinch a muscle lest it annoy him, hardly even breathing as he worked on adjusting the strands of magic entwined in the object. 

Several long minutes later, he pulled back and said, "There, it is done. Thankfully I had included flexibility in the original design which had primarily required only that certain features might be turned on or off, although I needed to make a few minor adjustments here and there to do what I wished. Come, stand. We must inform Captain Sanzoku of our plans." 

Toriko nodded gratefully and climbed to her feet again, heading out of the cabin along with him to go locate the pirate woman. Since they had left sight of the big island, the pirates had switched back into their more accustomed garish piratical garb, and although the collar around her neck got a few looks and grins, its sight was hardly anything too out of the ordinary aboard this ship. 

They located Sanzoku speaking with One-Eyed Yoshi, who nodded to them as they approached and headed off. Sanzoku glanced between Makoto and Toriko and said, "Arrr to ye, mateys, and a good day. Have a nice sleep?" 

"A good enough day aside from the wayward infant," Makoto said. "We've discussed the matter and my dear fox here has decided to go try to locate the missing child." 

Sanzoku gave a nod and said, "Well enough, though methinks facilities toward raising a young babe aboard a pirate ship might be a wee bit lacking." 

"Right, probably not, that wasn't quite what I had in mind," he replied with a vaguely amused smirk. "We'll need to set Toriko ashore somewhere along the bay, preferably well enough away from populated areas so as to blend in easily to where she can begin the search." 

"Aye," Sanzoku agreed, then bellowed an order to the helmsman, "Bring us around to port, come up near the north shore of the bay, someplace away from the towns." 

Toriko said quietly, "I'll find the kid, one way or another. He can't have gotten far already. He probably just got picked up by an orphanage or something, if even that." 

Sanzoku nodded. "Might be done at that. Good luck enough with it, mate. Ye may well be needing it, certainly." 

"I'll do my best," Toriko said, as much for Makoto as for the pirate woman. 

They came along up to the shore some hours later, and Toriko was left alone on the beach with nothing but the clothes on her back and her pack with rations and supplies to fend for herself. She sighed quietly for a moment as she watched the ship sail away before turning and heading up away from the water. Some ways in, she stopped to carefully weave an illusion around the collar on her neck, not so much to make it invisible but to make it tend to be overlooked and simply not noticed by someone who didn't already know it was there. 

The kitsune sighed again and climbed up the rocky slopes, starting to head toward where she thought the nearest town must be. As night fell, she stopped to rest on a cliff top along the shoreline and watched the moons rise, tears streaming down her face for her own fate and what she knew she must do. There were always choices. She could not be sure, though, that refusing to do as her master had asked would save the child anyway. Regardless, at least then his blood would not be on her hands, as was the blood of the many guards she had fought who were merely doing their jobs and defending the castle from murderous, treasonous intruders. 

It was certainly not a situation which she particularly liked or could think anyone would possibly be envious of. She wasn't certain just what she thought of her master right now. What he had asked of her might seem a brutal, inhuman thing, but he had made it all make sense with a very good reason for it. But still, she could not help but think that there might not be any alternatives. 

High atop the cliff, she almost drifted off into sleep without even bothering to pull out her bedroll, crying herself to sleep in her own fear and confusion, but she did finally remember that detail and pulled it out with a sigh, unrolling it and curling up to sleep. She wasn't sure if she even cared if it was a safe or secure location or if anyone might bother her in the night. At least, she thought darkly, if they killed her she wouldn't have to deal with the choice of following her master's orders or suffering the consequences of failure. However, there was nothing to disturb her rest that night, and she slept peacefully and uninterrupted until the sun broke over the waters of the horizon the next morning. 

Toriko sighed and stirred, munched on a bit of ration without really feeling very hungry, and folded up her bedroll, before setting out down the cliff and toward the capital city of Takira once again. She was certainly not looking forward to any of this, and thought the child was as well off left wherever his fate had left him, whether that be to live or die, at least it was not on her hands. Even if injuring his nurse badly enough that she had apparently died of it had really left that in her hands anyway. 

She arrived in the capital city by afternoon of the next day, and the city was in an uproar. There was chaos in the streets, and people were in a state of panic. The guards at the gates heading into the city proper didn't question her, a weary woman travelling alone, as clearly she couldn't have been connected to what had happened at the palace two nights hence. 

Likewise, even as she had hoped when she had put the illusion on the collar, nobody even gave it a glance, their eyes averting from it and simply failing to notice that it was even there. It would hardly be sufficient to fool a real mage, but then they would be the ones most likely to realize that this simple travelling townswoman was more than she seemed, anyway. They would be the ones which she hoped she would not come across, because they'd put an end to her mission rather quickly if they had any inkling of what she was doing. Perhaps, though, that might not be such a bad thing.


	19. The Orphan

"Please, sir, you have to help me, I have to find my baby, my poor baby," Toriko pleaded for what seemed like the hundredth time today. For the most part, people had been sympathetic and helpful enough, buying easily into her melodrama without question. 

"You could try checking at the orphanage just outside the city walls," said the man, half-ignoring her and continuing on with loading a cart. In spite of recent events in the palace, panic and confusion, some people maintained that work had to go on somehow, and didn't take any excuse for slacking off. 

"I already checked there," she said. "I must have checked every orphanage in town. I could not find him anyway. Oh, what could have happened to him?" 

"I don't know, ma'am," he replied. "I'm sorry, I can't really help you there. I hope you find the poor kid." 

She recognized a dismissal when she heard one, and sighed, nodding, and said, "Thank you anyway, kind sir." Toriko moved on, wondering where the child might have gone if he wasn't at any of the orphanages. Perhaps he had been left at a clinic instead, where the wounded woman might have gone to seek treatment for her injuries. But no, if she had gone to such a place, she probably would have survived, as the injuries she had sustained had not been that severe, she was sure. Maybe a private home had taken the boy in instead from wherever he had been left. That would take a good deal more doing to hunt down, though. 

For the remainder of the day, she searched through town, asking around at homes through residential areas if a young baby had been brought to them, but still her search remained fruitless as the night began to fall. She sighed wearily, realizing she was growing tired from her search and a long day of walking, and also that she didn't even have any money to book a room at one of the inns in town, either, and only rations to eat. 

It would not be safe to sleep on the streets in the city itself at night, though, so she headed off out of town tiredly and into the farmland toward the west of town. Perhaps some kindly farmer would let her sleep in their barn or something for the night. It was nearly midnight by the time she came to one such farmhouse, and with a sigh she reluctantly headed up to knock on the door with some hesitation. Several minutes passed and she thought that they might not have heard her, and she timidly reached up a hand to knock again when the door opened to reveal a middle-aged farmer man. 

"What you lass doing out here in the middle of the night?" asked the man, looking her over. Somewhere in the house behind him, she could hear the sound of a crying baby. 

"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything, good sir," she said. "But I'm looking for a place to stay for the night. I'm afraid I don't have any money, but I can work if you like--" 

"Oh, come in," the farmer said, sighing and gesturing at her to come inside. "It's a mite chilly out there and we got a spare room or two somewhere anyhow." 

"Thank you, sir," Toriko replied, gratefully stepping inside, and he shut the door behind her. "I've spent all day wandering around town trying to find some sign of where my baby might have ended up. I'm so worried about him and I do hope he's alright." 

The man quirked an eyebrow at her, and said, "A baby, you say. Strange enough thing happened two nights ago. A woman came stumbling up toward our farmhouse carrying this infant in her arms, and there were nasty claw marks across her shoulder like she was attacked by some animal or monster." 

"Oh my goodness," Toriko whispered, her eyes widening. "Do you think it could have been the one I'm looking for?" 

"She died shortly after," the man went on, leading her off into the room where his wife was tending to the crying baby. Toriko hadn't really gotten a close look at the child before, but at a glance it did look to be the same one, and the story matched up certainly. "We thought at first that she must have been the boy's mother, but he doesn't even really look like her. She was almost blond, like some Flylander, but he's got himself a full head of black hair, like you." 

Toriko realized abruptly that she didn't even know the kid's name, not that he would know it to be able to respond to it anyway, but it would make it quite obvious that she was lying through her teeth if the nurse had managed to tell them his name before she died. "Oh, my boy, could it be true?" she murmured quietly. "I was out of town when I heard about what had happened, and I hurried back as quickly as I could to try to find him. I was so worried!" 

But there was certainly something in the man's posture that told her quite clearly that he didn't seem to believe her. Perhaps it was just paranoia, or perhaps the nurse had indeed told him something to invalidate her entire story. "Come," he said, however, instead of confronting her about it, much to her relief. "You must be hungry." He led her off to the kitchen, and she followed gratefully with another glance back at the boy, which was slowly quieting down again. 

"Yes, I'm half-starved, I haven't had anything to eat in days but a few rations," she replied as she followed him down through the hallway. 

He took her completely by surprise and grabbed her by the upper arms, pinning her against the kitchen wall. "What are you trying to pull here?" he snarled in a low voice. "Who are you really?" 

"W-What are you talking about?" she said, eyes widening and staring at him in shock. "Let me go!" 

"Certainly I led you on to try to see if you'd say anything to make me believe your story," he practically hissed at her. "But you don't seriously think the nurse didn't tell us anything about who the child really was, do you?" 

"Please let me go," Toriko whimpered, panicking. One thing after another to go wrong! She knew she could probably get out with a bit of magic, but she didn't really want to hurt the poor farmers, and the baby was still in there. But her master would say that they weren't important, whether they lived or died. 

"Tell me, girl," the man said, squeezing her arms so hard it hurt. "Do you know the child's name? Do you know who his mother really is? Who are you? Who are you really?" 

"I said," Toriko snarled, "Let. Me. Go." A surge of adrenaline and desperation burned away her weariness, and she shifted form, snapping out at the farmer with teeth and claws. He was so surprised at the sudden shape change that he loosened his grip upon her, a shock that proved fatal to him as she ripped out his throat with her fangs before he even had a chance to scream or cry out in alarm. 

Her master would be pleased with her, she thought quietly to herself as she looked down at the body of the farmer with something of a shock herself at just what she had done. One more innocent to add to the list of those she had killed, the tang of his blood still hot on her tongue. But there wasn't time to stop and dwell about it, as someone would realize what was going on soon enough, and she had to get the baby. She turned and headed back into the room where she had seen him with the deceased farmer's wife. 

The woman looked up at her with a gasp, almost dropping the baby in horror as Toriko bounded into the room, her husband's blood dripping from her jaws. "Monster! Demon! Stay away from the baby!" She shielded the child's body with her own and tried to flee the room. 

Toriko leaped on her with claws and fangs ripping into her body before she could escape, not hesitating for a moment this time. What did another death really matter at this point? She pulled out the baby from underneath the mangled body of the farmer woman, his face and blanket soaked in his brief foster mother's spilled blood. Footsteps could be heard heavily from upstairs. Someone must have heard the woman's screams. Clasping the babe in her arms, Toriko raced for the door and out into the night, leaving the farm family to see only the vanishing white tip of her tail. 

As the adrenaline left her body, her exhaustion quickly caught up with her and she could not continue much further. The baby was crying again, screaming and bawling his head out into the silence of the night. Toriko feared that someone would hear it and come find her. What had she gotten herself into? She sighed softly as she stumbled along across wilderness away from the farmland. Two more innocent people whose blood was on her hands, and a third whose delicate little life she carried in her arms. 

She wasn't too sure just how Sanzoku's pirates were going to find her again, although her master had assured her that they certainly would. Perhaps part of the enchantment he had placed upon the collar around her neck had been a beacon for him to find her, or maybe he simply meant that he would use his magical map to locate her. However they managed it, she did hope that they would find her soon, before the angry farmers, the city guards, or whoever else might be searching for her caught up with her. 

"Please stop crying, little one," Toriko whispered, rocking the baby gently and trying to get him to calm down. "It'll all be over soon. One way or another." There were tears in her own eyes again unbidden at the thought of what she knew the child's fate would be, and she sighed and curled up at the base of a tree, wrapping her tail around her and the child and holding it close with her bloodstained paws. It would not really spare him any to take him back to her master, she thought, and perhaps it would be best to end his suffering now herself. With the last of her fading energy, she wrapped a weave of illusion about them so that they might be overlooked by anyone searching for them. 

Perhaps the baby eventually stopped crying and she drifted off into sleep at some point, as the next thing she could remember was the light of the rising sun touching her eyelids and stirring her awake. She found the young boy still asleep quietly in her arms, curled up and silent with the innocent trust of the very young, not knowing or understanding what had terrible things had happened to his real parents, or his foster parents. 

Silently thankful that her illusion must have kept her from being found, she slowly climbed to her feet again, stretching out a bit and careful not to disturb the sleeping babe. She sighed softly and struck off into the wilderness, toward the northeast, to where Sanzoku's pirate ship had dropped her off on the shore of the bay. 

This way no game, she thought quietly to herself, and she thought back fondly upon the time before Zannin's troops had attacked the village of Kanson, before she had been captured and forced into servitude against her will. Those were good times, filled with happy laughter and innocent games, back when she had been known as Kishou. Would she ever manage to find her laughter again? And in the end, could she fully blame Zannin for all that had happened, or had more than a little of it happened because she had willfully and blindly walked into it, led along by a leash step by step until she had gone too far too turn back again? Had she ever really loved him, or was it merely infatuation and lust? 

There were always choices, though, and she could not fully deny that she had made her own along the way, for better or for worse. Perhaps it was time enough that she would simply have to accept the choices that she had made, and stop feeling so terrible about it all. Crying over it would not bring back to life those whose lives she had cut short with her own claws and teeth, no matter how their faces and voices still haunted her thoughts. 

She wasn't sure just how many hours she walked, but she did soon enough come to the shore and, sure enough, saw Sanzoku's ship there, as if it were waiting for her all the while. Sighing and thinking that she must look terrible, she held the sleeping child close and headed over toward the beach and to board the ship. 

"Arrr, matey, you look terrible," One-Eyed Yoshi commented, agreeing with her own sentiment. 

"The fox is aboard!" Sanzoku bellowed. "Weigh anchor! Let's go, afore they come after us with a whole bloody fleet!" 

Her master, however, was simply looking at her with a dark grin upon his face as she walked over toward him. "I have done as you wished, Master," she said to him quietly. "I have brought you the child you wanted." 

"You have done well, my pet," he said to her, not reaching to take the baby yet, but lifting a hand to caress her face lightly. "Very well indeed, and you shall be rewarded with your own due for it." 

He directed another of the pirates to take the child and make sure that it was cared for until they came ashore again, and Toriko reluctantly released the child and allowed the female pirate to take him away. She wasn't sure why her master was going to the trouble of keeping him alive rather than killing him on the spot. Perhaps he didn't want to make it obvious to the pirates just what sort of a monster he really was. Or maybe, she thought with some small hope, he didn't intend to kill the child in the end after all. Perhaps he had changed his mind about it. Or maybe he wanted to dispose of him quietly in some elaborate ritual to summon a demon or something. 

"Come," her master said, interrupting her dark thoughts. "Let's get you cleaned up a bit and settled in again. You could no doubt use some rest in a real bed as well." 

"Yes, Master," she murmured as she quietly followed after him.


	20. Laughter

In spite of however she might still feel about what she had done, she had to admit that her master certainly knew how to give pleasure when he had a mind to. It was enough to put everything else out of her mind for a brief time, and he promised more rewards yet once the situation had stabilized some more. 

She was alone in her cabin half-asleep when Sanzoku came in, the door clattering shut behind her with a shove. Toriko stirred and blinked up at her, moving to a sitting position and rubbing her eyes a bit. "Hi, Sanzoku," she murmured. "What's up?" 

"Bah, put some clothes on, girl, you've been walking around deck half-naked lately," Sanzoku replied, completely dropping the pirate accent for the moment. That was itself a sure sign she was serious about something, but she doubted it was just her rather casual attire of late. 

Toriko smirked and made no immediate move to get dressed just yet, and said, "Is there a problem, Sanzoku?" 

"Your boyfriend," Sanzoku said, practically spitting. "Don't think I haven't noticed this." She reached over poked at the collar. "What did he do to you, girl?" 

"What do you mean?" Toriko replied, raising an eyebrow at her. 

"Don't think I haven't noticed the inconsistancies in your story. You say you were captured by Zannin and escaped only with the help of Makoto. But Zannin and Makoto are the same person! What really happened there, girl?" 

"A fine time to bring that up now, after we murdered the Imperial family," Toriko said with a smirk. 

"I'm not saying that didn't need doing or I didn't agree with it all," Sanzoku replied. "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on with you. I don't give half a damn worth of anything else." 

"You want the truth?" Toriko replied. "The truth is that he is my master and I would do absolutely anything for him." 

"What did he do to you, girl?" Sanzoku said quietly, sitting down beside her and pulling her hair back. "Tell me, please, and don't think I didn't notice the significance in the name you've chosen for yourself." 

"Nothing quite so bad as you might fear," Toriko said. "And not a thing that I would care to spare a breath to complain about or speak out against." 

"You're still evading the question," Sanzoku pointed out. "Are you so afraid to tell me what really happened there for what I might think of it? You know perfectly well that I'd gut the bastard if he did you wrong." 

"Yeah, that's kind of what I'm afraid of," Toriko said with a smirk. "I don't want you to kill him, alright? I'll tell you if you promise to respect that, okay?" 

"Fine," Sanzoku said. "No gutting the werewolf. Now out with it." 

Toriko sighed and leaned back against the wall, and said, "Alright. Yes, Zannin did indeed capture me. He held me in his castle on threat of punishment if I disobeyed him or tried to escape, and followed through on that a couple times when I tried anyway. Though all in all he was probably pretty lenient to me under the circumstances." 

"What, he enslaved you?" 

"Something like that, I suppose," Toriko went on. "And all the while, there was this guard named Makoto bringing me food and being kind to me. I didn't know at the time that they were really the same person. I fell in love with Makoto. When the Takirans attacked, we escaped through the tunnels under the castle and came to a nearby village. I didn't find out that they were really the same person until there, when he told me himself." 

Sanzoku scratched her head in puzzlement over that turn of events. "Okay, let me get this straight. You're in love with this guy?" 

"I think so," Toriko said. "I don't know. Maybe it's just lust. Maybe it's something more than love, or something else entirely not less than it. I'm not really sure what I feel anymore." 

"And you'd do anything for him," Sanzoku said flatly. "And you don't think for a moment about the fact that he's clearly been fucking with your mind the entire time?" 

"I--" Toriko began, then sighed and shook her head slowly, looking to the floor. "I don't really care at this point. I don't think he's really been messing with my mind all that much at all. He never even outright lied to me about that business. I suppose it was partly my fault for not putting two and two together sooner." 

"Okay. Right," Sanzoku said, leaning back and letting out a sigh of her own. "You leave me to try to decide whether to respect your wishes and choices, or to decide that you've been brainwashed and act against your wishes for your own good, you know." 

Toriko glanced aside to her with something of alarm. "You promised you wouldn't, Sanzoku." 

"I'm a pirate, my dear, remember that?" Sanzoku replied. "A good pirate always keeps their word, except when they can get away with it. Regardless, I didn't say what I'd decided yet. He hardly seems all that bad a fellow anyway, so far as evil overlords go at any rate. But nobody wrongs my friends and gets away with it." 

"I could have made any number of choices," Toriko said. "I chose to stay with him, and obey him, and be loyal to him, and not to betray him when I had plenty of opportunities to do so. Whatever you might think, I was not so coerced or brainwashed as I might have been otherwise." 

"Is that really what is best for you? Do you enjoy being dominated by another, submitting to another's will? Do you like being little else than a slave or a pet?" 

Toriko paused for a moment and looked to the floor, and finally said quietly, "Yes." She sighed softly. There, she'd admitted it, perhaps she hadn't even been willing to admit that to herself, but when asked straight out she couldn't deny the truth of it. 

Sanzoku sighed and rose to her feet. "Fine. Sorry to have intruded. I was just concerned about the well-being of my friend. But I will respect your wishes and leave you to your own choices." 

"I do appreciate it, regardless," Toriko murmured, standing and going to give her a hug. 

Sanzoku grinned faintly and squeezed her fondly. "Just promise me one thing, if it's what really makes you happy." 

"What's that?" Toriko said, drawing back to look at her. 

"I want to hear your laughter again." 

Toriko smiled faintly at her and said, "I promise." 

Sanzoku spontaneously planted her lips firmly upon Toriko's, much to her surprise. Makoto chose that moment to open the door and just stood there looking at them, a little amused. Sanzoku didn't release Toriko or move, just casting her eyes over toward him. 

"Mm, hot," he said, grinning. "Oh, please, do carry on, ladies, don't let me stop you." He laughed softly. 

Sanzoku just shrugged and proceeded to make out with Toriko, squeezing her tightly and probing her mouth with her tongue. Toriko was as much surprised about her master's reaction as she was about what Sanzoku was doing, as she had had no idea that the pirate woman really felt that way about her. After some fairly uncomfortable moments, Sanzoku broke off and released her. 

Makoto just chuckled softly and came in. "Now, now, I hardly mind you two playing around, but it's only polite to invite me. She is mine, after all." 

"But I'm not a--" Toriko began. 

"Sorry," Sanzoku said, slipping back into her pirate accent now that another person was in earshot. "That be entirely me fault, matey, not the dear fox. I got work to see to, so I'll leave ye be now." She squeezed past Makoto to head for the door and left them alone in the cabin. 

Makoto grinned faintly and approached Toriko, reaching up to caress her face lightly with a hand. "You should be more open-minded, my dear. You should let go more and just focus on enjoying yourself. You've been making yourself positively miserable lately, and for what?" 

"You're right, I suppose," Toriko said with a sigh, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his shoulder. "It's not always easy, Master, but I will try." 

"Don't just try," he said, massaging her back and shoulders reassuringly. "Relax." 

She let out a deep breath and let herself relax as he worked out the tension in her body that she hadn't fully realized was even there. She felt safe in his arms, trusting of him that he would not allow her to come to harm. Was it really such a misplaced trust? Dauntless, she didn't really care right now. Sanzoku wanted to hear her laughter again. Was she really happy with her situation if she could not laugh or smile over it? Perhaps she just needed to let herself relax more. Things were not really all that bad after all. There was joy and pleasure to be found here, and she gave a small smile at the thought. 

"That's more like it," her master said, grinning at her. "Never feel sorry or hesitant for what you do. Spare not a moment for regret or remorse, for not only will they not change what was done, they imply that you would not have wished it to happen in the first place. There is pleasure to be found in a great many things that society would have kept from you with its foolish ideals of morals, of what is right and what is wrong. Tell me, my dear, did you not feel the slightest thrill of exhilaration when you ripped out those people's throats and tasted their blood upon your lips?" 

Toriko thought about that for a moment, and said quietly, "I can't deny there was certainly a rush to it, Master. I might have even almost enjoyed the last one in a way, I think." 

"Take your own joy in things, and laugh about it. Is that not what the kitsune do, after all?" he said, chuckling softly. "No one has ever heard of a depressive kitsune before." 

"No one has ever heard of an evil, selfish, murderous kitsune before, either," Toriko replied. "I suppose there's a first time for everything, though." 

"Tsk, now, is it really evil? Just a word, invented by small-minded people to describe things that they personally find distasteful because they do not have the nerve to do what really needs to be done sometimes, and when they do, they make themselves miserable about it rather than letting themselves enjoy it. They deny themselves and their own natures and impulses. The same would generally call such things as sex or homosexuality evil, as well, and you certainly don't believe that now do you?" 

"Surely not," Toriko said, smirking faintly and taking a seat on the bed and looking up at him. "I guess I have a lot to unlearn, don't I. But I will listen and heed whatever you would teach me, Master, and gladly so." 

He smiled at her and sat down next to her, putting an arm around her. "And I will be glad to teach you." 

A couple days later, the ship came into port at a small island to the northeast of the big island of Takira. The pirate woman who had been charged with care of the baby was certainly grateful enough, coming up with the child to the main deck to where Toriko, Makoto, and Sanzoku were standing. 

"Arrr," said the woman. "What will be done with little Maigo now?" A nickname she had given the child, for lack of anyone aboard the ship knowing his name, it meant a lost child. 

Makoto pursed his lips and grinned a bit and looked over at the child. "Mm, I'm not sure yet. Toriko, my dear, what do you think on the matter?" 

She wasn't sure if this was some sort of test or not or what sort of answer he expected her to give, but no matter what all he had drilled into her, she was still going to reply what she honestly felt. "I think he should be raised and taught more appropriate ways, Master," she replied quietly. 

Makoto looked over toward her, quirking his lips again, and said, "Then so be it. The primary responsibility for that, however, shall fall to you. Take whatever assistance you need or choose, but you will see to it that it is done to my satisfaction." 

Toriko gave a small nod and replied, "It shall be as you wish, Master." 

Sanzoku smirked as she looked between the two of them and the baby, and said, "Arrr. Congratulations, girl. You're a mother. Sort of." 

Toriko looked at her and laughed brightly and went to take the child up in her arms happily.


	21. Honor

The pirates had apparently acquired quite a few valuables of formerly Imperial position during their run of the palace. Sanzoku was careful to regulate sale of them so as not to arouse too much suspicion toward them, but it was certainly more than enough to keep the crew quite happy for the moment. Among other things that they acquired from the island was milk for the poor young child, as they had not really had much aboard at the time, even though they did have magical storage containers which kept things nicely in stasis to allow perishable items to be transported more easily. 

"You're going to have to come up with something to call him, you know," Makoto said, looking over at her as she fed the child. "None of us know what his name actually was, and I suppose anyone that might know is probably dead. Or just as well off that he's not so easily connected back to the Imperial family, anyway." 

"I'd rather not call him Maigo," Toriko said. "I don't really know, though. I'll have to think about it, I suppose. I hadn't really given much thought to coming up with a name for a boy, as I hadn't exactly any reason to think I would have to." She chuckles softly. 

Makoto smiled and reached over to caress her face lightly. "It's good to hear you laugh, my dear. Take the time to think it over. I will be finding a nice, secure little castle on one of these islands to make my new interim headquarters, and you will be kept safe there for the time being while I set about taking hold over the Sunrise Islands. You will have guards and servants around to assist you, and I will take the time to make sure that the security enchantments are strong enough that, if it does come under attack, you will have time to escape if need be. I doubt that anyone will much bother, though, since I won't be there myself much. I don't doubt they still have their Seeker tracking me, not that they can exactly do much about my activities anyway it would appear." 

"What will you do then, Master?" Toriko wondered, gently rocking the quiet child to sleep. 

"Once I secure my hold over the place, I will set up a permanent headquarters somewhere, and I will take you there under my protection and continue to teach you what you might learn. We will make sure that something like this does not happen again, that I'm not squeezed out of my own house by fools who would seek to uproot me and forced to flee across the islands like some mad beggar, hopping around from island to island on the sails of oddly-speaking sea robbers. They have certainly been a great help, no doubt, but in the end I would not be able to rely upon their loyalty to me for the most part." 

"Where are you going to find more minions on short notice, Master?" Toriko asked. 

"The mensch are always easily enough swayed by a display of power," he went on. "It's the mages you need to be careful of, but even they tend to realize that it isn't a very good idea to mess with someone more powerful than them. There are, of course, various ways to ensure loyalty, especially amongst mensch who have no inherent resistance to magic. They might think to swear false oaths of fealty toward me, intending to betray me later, only to find that that their oaths were indeed more binding than they had realized they might be." 

"If you could do something like that, Master, why didn't you do something like that to me?" Toriko wondered quietly, raising an eyebrow and looking over at him. 

"It isn't always so easy to do so upon magical beings," Makoto said. "For one thing, you would have realized that you should swear nothing to me unless you absolutely meant it, am I right?" 

"Yeah, I suppose," Toriko said. "My mother did always tell me to be careful of things like that." 

"And there are some to which such a thing does not even work in the first place, anyway. Regardless, you need not worry about the mensch, and I will deal with the mages, one way or another. It may be useful to have mages working for you, but it often takes time to ensure their loyalty. And there will certainly be time enough soon, but I need the framework in place first, and to take advantage of an opportunity before it slips away. But you, my dear, there was more to it than merely that it may or may not work. I wanted you, yes, but I wanted you willingly, even eagerly. I wanted you to serve me because you wanted to, not because you had to. I wanted you to be eager to do absolutely anything to please me." 

"Well," Toriko replied, grinning a bit. "You have certainly gotten what you wanted then, haven't you, Master." She laughed softly and carefully set the sleeping baby on the bed to go put her arms around her master and kiss him tenderly. 

"And I am not displeased at all with what has come of it," he said, grinning back at her. 

"I'm glad," she said, looking up into his smiling brown eyes and caressing his face with her fingertips. "I am certainly glad." 

The ship wound its way through the waters from island to island, dumping off more of its riches and booty at each one carefully in exchange for that which could not be traced quite so easily back to them. They came along a couple weeks later to an island with a small castle perched atop a sea cliff. 

"That one will do," Makoto said, looking it over from the deck of the ship appraisingly. 

"Why a castle, anyway?" Toriko wondered with a vaguely amused smirk. "Why not a modest manor or a large townhouse?" 

"Style," Makoto replied, chuckling softly. "Nothing says 'I am your lord and master' like a majestic castle." 

"If you say so," she said, snickering. "I think it's a bit tacky myself, Master, but that's just my opinion. Sometimes it might draw unwanted attention as well. And they aren't particularly practical considerations these days as the architectural defenses are pretty much obsoleted by magical advances anyway." 

"You make some fine points, of course," Makoto replied with a small grin. "See, that right there is a great example as to why willing servants are far more useful than those too afraid to speak up and input something they think might help in some way." He reached over to stroke her hair gently. "Never be afraid of stating your opinion, as I just might listen, so long as you always do what I say regardless." 

"Always," she said, leaning over to give him a kiss and grinning a bit. "If the Master wants a castle, then a castle he shall have." 

Makoto had his castle, as he spent the next several days sweeping through the mensch and gaining their allegience, as well as a couple minor mages. The elemental mages may be a good deal less useful and versitile, all in all, but they still had their uses, and they generally lacked the defenses that higher mages might have to protect them against Makoto's mental enchantments. There were guards to protect the castle, cooks and servants and maids to keep it going and keep it clean, nurses to help with caring for the baby. 

As he prepared to leave, now that he had gotten everything in order on this island, Toriko approached him and said, "I wish to go with you, Master." 

"You would entrust the care of the child to these mensch?" he replied, more amused than accusatory. 

"I will remain here if you wish that of me," she said. "But I would rather go with you, no matter how dangerous it might be. Perhaps I might be able to assist you more in some way were I at your side." 

"Very well," he said, giving a small nod and a grin. "We will be leaving at dawn. Be ready." 

The next morning they arrived at the port town to find Sanzoku's ship still in the harbor. Toriko had expected them to be long gone by now, but for some reason they had stuck around. She didn't have much to carry with her beyond the clothes on her back and the collar around her neck. She prefered to rely more on her own teeth and claws than other weapons that she might wield. 

"Arrr," Sanzoku said as they approached. "Ye think we'd be running off without ye, mateys? Not a chance in the world. The plunder be good where ye point." 

Makoto chuckled softly and said, "Well enough, then. Let us be off. We have work to do." 

"Aye, matey!" Sanzoku said, calling out to the crew, "All aboard! Hoist the sails! Raise the anchor! Let us be under way!" 

Once everyone was aboard again, the ship said on out from the harbor and south again, south toward Takira. "You realize that this will be dangerous, of course," Makoto said. 

"Everything worth doing is dangerous, mate," Sanzoku replied. "Oftentimes that's where ye'll find the best plunder, too." 

"I know perfectly well you don't just do everything for the plunder, Sanzoku," Toriko commented with a smirk. "Why are you really doing this all?" 

"Because it be the right thing to do," the captain said. "Sometimes the right thing to do and the nice thing aren't always the same thing. But I be thinking that this will work out for the best in the end." 

"Philosophical pirates concerned with the well-being of the world?" Makoto commented with an amused smirk. 

"Yeah, mate, don't let that one get out, will ye?" Sanzoku said, snickering softly. "Being a pirate ain't all about plunder and booty, or keelhauling scurvy dogs. It be about honor and courage, the will to do things and the valor not to be afraid of those who would turn their ill attention in our direction because of it." 

"That can be an awfully dangerous thing at times," Makoto pointed out. "What if I were an unscrupulous villain who thought your values were a threat to my regime?" 

"Nonsense," Sanzoku replied. "The fox trusts ye, and what I seen o' ye tells me no different. Ye all go big and vicious werewolf, but underneath all the fur and fangs and the harsh, brutal outlook ye put on for people, ye're really just trying to do the right thing, too, in yer own way." 

Makoto chuckled softly and inclined his head toward her. "A perceptive woman you are, to be sure. Such loyalty is not particularly strong or lasting, however. Are you not afraid that I would decide that the risk of you deciding you don't like what I am doing is too great to be allowed to continue? Even more so because of the chance of you getting into an idea that I am somehow going against what you wuold prefer, when in fact that it may appear at first to be so but my motivations underneath it are precisely what you might wish and hope for?" 

"I hold me loyalty to none but meself and me crew," Sanzoku said. "And far be it from me to interfere without good cause, o' whatever I might think ye be doing." 

"Tell me, Captain Sanzoku," Makoto said curiously. "What would you have done if I had killed the child?" 

"Probably keelhauled ye," Sanzoku replied. "Why would ye have killed him?" 

"For being a potential threat when he grows up. Why would you have been upset over it?" 

Sanzoku shook her head slowly. "Because ye ain't given them a chance to live. Ain't no way a little babe can defend hisself from a big, strong werewolf like ye be." 

"Most people can't defend themselves from a Garou like me," Makoto said. "Does that imply I should kill no one, then?" 

"Fair fights are overrated," Sanzoku said. "Sometimes people got to die, but ye shouldn't kill without cause or need. That one can kill without hesitation at need does not contradict that each life has value and that one should never kill needlessly. If someone be not in me way or trying to kill me, best to just leave them be. Let them be. They deserve to live and not merely have their lives snuffed out heedlessly because someone felt like it. An' ye never know, they might just help ye later." 

Makoto chuckled softly and agreed, "There's not really much sense in going around killing people for no reason, no, not when they could be potentially useful. Who else would you then find to serve you if you've killed everyone?" 

"What about their own lives?" Sanzoku said quietly. "Their friends and family, their hopes and dreams?" 

"Those are generally their own concern, not mine," he said. "It's entirely up to them to pursue them as they wish. But I care little what they choose to do so long as it does not interfere with my own plans. But better by far that they have the freedom and capacity to pursue their own whims and desires within that so long as they are not going against me." 

"And that'll be so," Sanzoku said. "By all means." 

"You serve the same ideals, certainly," Makoto said. "You follow your own whims, but destroy without hesitation any who interfere with that. But you are pirates. You attack other ships for fun and profit. You may kill many of those aboard who were merely defending themselves from your own unprovoked attacks. What of their lives? Do you care of them too, and think that they should be allowed to live and let live?" 

"Ye may have a point, matey," Sanzoku replied, chuckling softly. "Far be it from me to be a hypocrite." 

Though for all that her master had told her, and for all the gleeful murder Sanzoku sometimes participated in, Toriko still had to wonder if there was not something more to it all, to something that was true and right. She had killed, she knew, and she would again and again, however her master wished her to. Perhaps she would even come to enjoy it and take pleasure in the suffering and death of others. But she could not help but feel that she had not lost something very precious, for a moment, before she ceased to care, and grinned at the prospect of more blood.


	22. Epilogue

Perhaps Zannin was correct in assuming that it would be easy to slip into the gap of power left by the slain Imperial family, or perhaps it was merely a potent display of power and strength that cemented his rule as the new Emperor of the Sunrise Islands. He was careful to conceal the fact that he was a werewolf from them, leaving it only to one of many rumors that nobody could be quite certain which they were going to believe, none of which sounded at all plausible. There had not been a great many shapeshifters on Lezaria in many millennia, so it was easy enough to dismiss it as a mere fantasy.

Zannin took up residence in the same Imperial Palace as the family which they had slaughtered, and brought in servants and their foster child whose parents they had murdered, allowing people to presume that the child was his and Toriko's as they would. Anyone that would recognize who the child really was, was already dead anyway. The kitsune had, in the end, decided to call him by the name Yukio.

Sanzoku would never bow to anyone, but in time enough, One-Eyed Yoshi stepped down as her first mate and swore himself into Zannin's service, providing valuable assistance as a spy, assassin, and bodyguard. The ninja pirate proved skilled, able, and absolutely loyal to the master, whether entirely willing or reinforced by magic was uncertain.

Yukio grew up strong and bright, as Toriko encouraged him to think and to use his mind, although his learning in morality and rightness was rather lacking. Unfettered by such restrictions, he grew up cruel and sadistic, gleeful at the thoughts of torture and murder and the enslavement of others for his own benefit and amusement.

As for Toriko, she had, in the end, proven quite open to further teachings of Zannin in the ways of deviance and corruption. She took pleasure in it and embraced it, and learned to love pain and blood, whether her own or that which was inflicted upon others, by her own hand or merely watching as Makoto tormented another victim. The carefree fox had been transformed into a malicious trickster, uncaring of how her pranks might hurt others, and very frequently all the more pleased when they came to harm because of it.

Zannin had wished her to become the representative for the Sunrise Islands to the Lezarian Council in Tinemocun, and she took on the position readily enough, winning the election readily enough and beating out other opponents without too much difficulty, perhaps with a little underhanded help from Zannin. She at first hadn't really been looking forward to regularly travelling halfway across the world to council meetings, but soon enough discovered that there was a portal in the city of Takira leading directly to Tinemocun, the capital of the planet Lezaria.

It was two years after Zannin's takeover of the Sunrise Islands that Toriko bore the two of them a child, a young daughter whom she named Ariake, of the sun rising with the moons still in the sky. Toriko thought her a beautiful child, and was considerably less harsh on her than to Yukio, far more protective of her. Yukio always assumed that was because Ariake was a girl, and never suspected that Toriko was not his natural mother. Yukio always considered himself the stronger of the two children, and he, too, grew protective of his sister even if, in his arrogance, he thought he was the more worthy of the two, and would never consider allowing any of the things which he regularly did to others happen to her.

Toriko considered Ariake her one pure joy left to her, the single ray of light in the darkness that she had embraced so readily in the end. For all the love and affection that she showed the girl, she hoped that the child would never have to go through what she did, no matter how she could not complain about how it turned out in the end. As a gift to her, she had a necklace crafted for her, of gold and silver and jade, depicting the brilliant shining sun, Yallia, and the two moons, silver Thondorron and green Halladan. It quickly became Ariake's most prized possession and she wore it everywhere.

Ariake was quite intelligent, perhaps even more so than her foster brother, but she tended to show it in different, more quiet ways. She absorbed books and read everything that she could get her hands on, reading and learning and taking in every bit of knowledge she could find. Toriko provided her with everything she ever asked for, hoping quietly that she might find some truth and answers for herself in everything that she read. Books were a haven for the young girl as she was growing up, a tranquil place away from the horrors and brutality that so often followed her parents. They took her to another place, places of thought and wonder, of the imagination, where valiant heroes battled cruel villains, and the heroes always won.

Perhaps it was that which influenced Ariake to allow her to break away from the influences of her parents and form her own thoughts and ideals about the world. She was a dreamer, who firmly believed in good and evil, in right and wrong. If Zannin saw how his daughter was becoming, however, he said nothing. Perhaps he was merely too busy with his own work to even notice, as she was quiet much of the time and said nothing about it, nor spoke out against what she saw him doing much of the time. Her ideas were her own, kept quietly and secretly in her heart even as her father was a cruel and tyrannical leader.

Her other friends drifted away from her, and went their separate ways. The were-dolphin Iruka eventually returned to the sea and stopped spending quite so much time on land, returning to spend more time with her own people and to raise a family of her own. The elven bard Hellath likewise returned on to his wanderings across Lezaria, heading back north again toward Zarhanna. Toriko saw him a couple times during council meetings in Tinemocun, but he did little more than grin at her from across a room and give a nod, and return to what he was doing. She could have sworn that there was some basis in fact in a few of the newer songs which he played in various inns and taverns, though, a reflection of reality that tugged at her heart and made her think and wonder.


End file.
